Veteran Bermuda swimmer Chris Smith has been awarded the bronze medal following the discovery of a results error in last month?s open water swim at the Masters World Championships in San Francisco Bay.

Competing in the 70 to 74 age group, Smith was clocked with a time of one hour, three minutes and 59 seconds over a rough three kilometre course.

After the event, organisers discovered a timing error which left George Brunstad of Ridgefield, Connecticut with the gold medal, Josef Krejci of Switzerland the silver and Smith the bronze.

These three swimmers had finished in the same order at the 2004 World Championships in Riccione Italy. Brunstad subsequently became the first seventy-year-old to swim the English Channel.

Smith, the oldest member in his age group at the championship, noted that that because he had grown up and still swims regularly in Bermuda, the rough seas had less effect on him than on many other competitors who were not used to such conditions.

Smith currently lives most of the year in Toronto where he is heavily involved in aquatics at the national and international level. He is the president of Masters Swimming Canada.