Young Northland swimmer Callum Prime is quickly learning that practice makes perfect and that hard work equals results.
The 14-year-old claimed 11 gold medals at the Douglas Logging Northland Swimming Championships held at the Kauri Coast Community Pool, the most of any Northlander.
Prime, who swims out of the Northwave Swimming Club, claimed some of his 11 medals in the combined 14-15 year age group - not to mention breaking seven race records, which need to be ratified by Swimming Northland.
While Prime stole the show at the competition - which ran from Friday through to Sunday and had 179 swimmers taking part - other Northlanders to perform well were Logan Gaualofa, Mia Gordon, David van der Star, Matthew Gordon, Cheyenne Field and Jeremy Elliott.
Eleven-year-old Bay of Islands swimmer Gaualofa was close on Prime's heels, claiming 10 golds.
Northwave swimmer Mia Gordon, also 11, along with clubmates Van der Star, 17, and Matthew Gordon, 15, were the next most successful athletes with nine golds. Fellow Northwave swimmer Field, 16, was one back with eight golds.
Bay of Islands swimmer Elliot, 12, was next best from his club with seven golds.
While there were many other stand-out performances during the carnival, there can only be one named regional champion in each group - with each swimmer winning five gold medals or more across the full range of events in their age.
For 9-year-olds, Emilia Finer from the Bay of Islands was a standout, with Dargaville's Temepara Bristow and Manaia's Tyler Maugham claiming top honours in the 10-year-old age range.
Unsurprisingly Mia Gordon and Gaualofa claimed top 11-year-old honours while Elliot picked up the 12-year-old title.
For the 13 years age group, Northwave's Ellie Eastwood was top female, with Paul Linton from Bream Bay taking the male title.
Prime was predictably the top for the 14s, with fellow Northwave swimmer Hayley McIntosh also top in the age group.
Matthew Gordon was the best 15-year-old swimmer with Field picking up the 16-year-old title and another fellow Northwave swimmer in the form of Melita Raravula claiming the 17-year-olds along with Van der Star.
Whangarei's Northwave Swimming Club was the most successful club at the championships, winning more than 80 gold medals.
The Dargaville Swimming Club won the Crawford Woodman Trophy for the eight-person relay, across four age groups - being the only club that was able to put together a team.
Meanwhile, the rest of the relays were shared between Bream Bay (two), Bay of Islands and Northwave.
Full results in Thursday's Northern Advocate.