The teen has qualified for the 2018 Georgina Hope Foundation Australian Age Swimming Championships at Sydney Olympic Park in April.

He will compete in the 100 metres butterfly but is hopeful of qualifying in more events before entries close.

Hayden achieved his qualifying time after winning the 100m butterfly at the Swimming NSW long-course qualifying meet at Sydney Olympic Park on October 14-15. He also won the 50m fly at the event.

Hayden is within milliseconds of qualifying for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games trials for the 50 and 100m butterfly.

The trials will be held on the Gold Coast in February.

Hayden is hoping of achieving the qualifying times at the Pacific School Games in Adelaide in December. It will be his first international swim meet.

At the event he will compete against the best school-aged swimmers in Australia and the Pacific.

Hayden said he has had a lot of support getting him to carnivals to achieve these results.

They include the Armidale Bowling Club, who raised $1000 for him, and the Armidale Sports Council.

He has also been aided by the Armidale Alligators Swimming Club and members of the community in general who have bought raffle tickets in support of him.

“[I would like] to thank them all for being so generous, as travelling away so often for swim meets is costly,” he said.

“[My] training has increased,” he added. “So a lot more work on endurance perfecting the back end of the race.”

He said along with putting in more kilometres in the pool, he had also upped his gym work.