He then broke the one\u2011minute barrier in the 100m freestyle, finishing in 59 seconds, a milestone he says is \u201creally good, especially for kids my age\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hugo\u2019s next target is a 57\u2011second swim.<\/p>\n
While freestyle is his strongest stroke, Hugo also competes in butterfly and is working to improve his backstroke and breaststroke to strengthen his individual medley.<\/p>\n
Behind the scenes, his family is holding down the fort.<\/p>\n
His parents, Dean and Samantha, are having \u201clots of early mornings, lots of late nights,\u201d but say it\u2019s worth it when they see their son\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s turning up every single day, so we\u2019ve got to do the same as parents,\u201d Dean says.<\/p>\n
Though schoolwork remains a non\u2011negotiable priority, and they expect Hugo to complete it ahead of all training.<\/p>\n
After every race, Hugo meets with his coaches for feedback, who reinforce that swimming is as much a mental contest as a physical one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether you think you can or you think you can\u2019t, you\u2019re right,\u201d Hugo says.<\/p>\n
On difficult days, he finds the water calming rather than daunting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I have a bad day and I dive in the water, I just calm down instantly. The water\u2019s my happy place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Hugo\u2019s long-term goal is to swim at the Olympics.<\/p>\n
Waikato swimmer Hugo Krompass trains five days a week in the pool.<\/p>\n
He knows the competition, especially in Waikato, is strong.<\/p>\n
He admits he sometimes looks at other swimmers\u2019 times and can\u2019t believe they\u2019re real, but he uses that as fuel rather than discouragement.<\/p>\n
Alongside his sporting ambitions, Hugo has another dream: studying palaeontology and travelling the world searching for fossils.<\/p>\n
For now, though, the focus is on swimming and school.<\/p>\n
Graeme \u201cMintie\u201d Mead is a sports commentator, the host of the radio show Waikato All Sports Breakfast and a Newstalk ZB overnight host. He is also a councillor on the Hamilton City Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He then broke the one\u2011minute barrier in the 100m freestyle, finishing in 59 seconds, a milestone he says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6127,13956,95,49638,192657,3022,45647,5267,174736,5511,192656,9086,7239,111,139,69,9716,25292,90,2730,5348,213,54978,5163,1524,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-367291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-already","9":"tag-ambition","10":"tag-and","11":"tag-athlete","12":"tag-bests","13":"tag-composure","14":"tag-discipline","15":"tag-goal","16":"tag-hugo","17":"tag-just","18":"tag-krompass","19":"tag-mindset","20":"tag-mission","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-nz","24":"tag-old","25":"tag-olympic","26":"tag-on","27":"tag-personal","28":"tag-showing","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-swimmer","31":"tag-teen","32":"tag-waikato","33":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}