In the very last race of the championship, the 10km open water race on Saturday, the 18-year-old locked horns with two Australian rivals and managed to stay in a three-man pack through to the end of the sixth lap out of eight.

However, over the last two laps, the Australian swimmers, with a few years of international experience behind them, began to pull away. Despite that, Boles managed to dig in deep and claim his second bronze medal of the championships, a fantastic achievement on his international debut.

Fellow Swim Rotorua member Paddy Baylis, 18, produced an excellent race in the 400m freestyle to post a big personal best time of 4m 7.84s. In his signature 1500m freestyle event, he produced his second best time ever, 16m 11.82s, to take fifth place.

Swim Rotorua head coach Alastair Johnson was immensely proud of his swimmers.

"Both David and Paddy have done really well. David produced a couple of stunning efforts in the open water to cement his growing stature as an open water specialist.

"I have no doubt that this international experience will encourage him to develop his skills more and to push on.

"Paddy also did really well against some tough opposition. He now enters his final preparations for the New Zealand Open Championships, which take place this week in Auckland," Johnson said.