James Ryan's ultimate birthday present isn't what you'd usually expect from a teenage boy.
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The Tamworth City swimmer is due to turn 14 on February 18.
The day after is the first day of the NSW Country Championships, where (if he hasn't by then) he is hoping to swim a nationals qualifying time for the 14-years boys 100m breaststroke.
After dropping another six hundredth of a second off his personal best at the Country Regionals on the weekend, where he won both the 100m and 200m breaststroke, Ryan is now under two seconds from the time.
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He has already booked his place on the starting blocks for the 200m after swimming the qualifying time at the Sharks carnival earlier in the month.
"I dropped three-and-a- half seconds and that's a pretty big improvement, so I was really happy with the result," he said.
It was good reward for all the hard work in training he has been doing to try and get down to the 2mins 41.16secs. Part of that has been working on his streamline and his position in the water.
Ryan said he felt like he was getting close.
"When I was training, in my sprints and everything I was doing pretty well so I was pretty confident heading into the meet," he said.
For Sharks coach Nicholas Monet one of the most impressive things about Ryan's swim was that it came barely half an hour after he had competed in the 400m individual medley, where he also swam a "big pb".
"Because he entered in the 400IM, the way he swum it was very impressive," Monet said.
It was a very "well-managed" race he said. He went out on the perfect stroke rate and with perfect technique, and was able to hold it through to the finish, swimming the final lap in under 41 seconds.
It will be Ryan's first nationals, having not been old enough to compete in previous years.
He has been swimming since he was eight. As he tells it, his older brother Marcus wanted to start so his mum thought they might as well sign him up too.
"So she signed me up and I really enjoyed it," he said.
He started out with 360 Scully Park before changing to City last year.
He also plays water polo, has for about three years now.
"Marcus introduced me to that too," he added.
It is more for a bit of fun, and as his swimming has really started to take off he has been concentrating more on that.
He will though go away with the Tamworth under-14s to the club championships next month.
It is also good for his leg strength for his breaststroke.
"The egg-beater does help a little bit," he said.
The nationals will be held in April.
Before then Ryan knows he has "a lot of hard sets" ahead of him.