Bermuda's top veteran swimmer Chris Smith completed his final day at the FINA World Masters Championships in New Zealand over the weekend with two fine performances, including a second gold medal.

In the 200 metres freestyle, 70-year-old Smith finished fifth in his age group behind American Graham Johnston, the world record holder, Bob Barry and David Lawler of Australia and Aldo Eminente of France.

It marked the only race in the meet where Smith was beaten by a European. Smith's time of 2:57.63 set a new Canadian record for 70-74 year-olds.

In the freestyle relay, Smith and his three friends from Ontario, Judith Oliver, Patricia Niblett and Arthur Inglis overwhelmed the opposition to take gold in a time of 2:28.67. All four are 70 years-old.

This result left Smith with three fourth place finishes and one fifth place finish for his individual events and two gold medals for the relays.

He set Canadian records in all of his events and the 4x50 metre medley relay time of 2:50.28 was a new age group world record.

Warwick resident Smith now holds eight Canadian records, all set during the last two weeks - six in Christchurch and two the week before at the Australian Championships in Sydney.

His individual event times from Christchurch are also believed to be Bermuda records.

Meanwhile, Smith didn't take part in Sunday's three kilometre ocean swim as the water temperature was 16 degrees celcius, well below the 18 required by FINA.

"It takes too long to recover from a swim of that distance at that temperature," he explained. "If it had been 20 (68 degrees fahrenheit) or more, I would have done it."

Smith returns to North America this week and plans to compete in the Ontario and Quebec Provincial Championships in April.