The record is as old as he is, but Greerton swimmer Nathan Capp has broken Danyon Loader's 22-year-old 1500 metre freestyle record at the weekend.

Capp was in a league of his own taking 16 seconds of the long standing record in a time of 14:38.74 on Saturday, at the New Zealand Short Course Championships in Wellington.

Nathan Capp during his record-breaking 1500m race.

The win qualifies him for December's FINA World Short Course Championships going under the qualifying time of 14:47.16.

The 22-year-old, who broke the national short course 800m freestyle record recently, is delighted after missing out on qualifying for the Commonwealth Games.

'I'm over the moon. It's really topped off an awesome week for me.

'I had a little bit of disappointment at the start of the year not making the Commonwealth Games and then been training all year for this really and I've done as I could have hope for. I'm stoked.”

Capp had plenty of support from his fellow swimmers from Swimming New Zealand's High Performance Centre in a strong performance.

'I did three weeks with Denis Cotterill [in Australia] which really helped that showed me a different level of competition.”

At the FINA World Short Course Championships he joins Lauren Boyle, Matthew Stanley and Glenn Snyders in the team to compete at Doha in December.

The world championships will round out an impressive year of performances for Boyle (United), who will defend her 800m freestyle world title at the event.

Snyders has also enjoyed an excellent international season claiming a bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke at the recent Pan Pacific Championships on the Gold Coast and making the final in the same event at the Commonwealth Games.

Stanley, below his best at Glasgow, broke his own New Zealand record in the 200m freestyle at the Pan Pacific Championships.

He was awarded the bronze medal in the 400m freestyle at the world short course championships in Turkey two years ago after the original medallist failed a drugs test.

Swimming New Zealand high performance director Luis Villanueva expected the team for the World Championships to be a small but select group.

'Most of the swimmers were required to break their own personal bests. It's a small team but World Short Course is not part of our priorities.

'We need to focus on our preparation for the World Long Course Championships in 2015 which is what is really important for us.

'It will be good for them to test themselves against the world's best in short course but what is really important is preparation for long course.”