Clareburt fourth at world champs
Lewis Clareburt warmed up for the Commonwealth Games with a fourth place finish at the Fina world championships in Budapest, Hungary.
The 22-year-old from Wellington missed the podium, placing fourth in the final of the men’s 400m individual medley in 4:10.98 – 6.70 seconds back from French gold medallist Leon Marchand.
Marchand’s time of 4:04.28 was the second fastest swum after Michael Phelps’ 4:03.84 at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Clareburt’s time was quicker than what he swam in the final of the Tokyo Olympics last year (4:11.22) and placed better than his seed ranking of seventh. Battling a bout of Covid-19 in the lead-up to the event,
Clareburt would have been encouraged by the result.
He finished seventh in the final of the men’s 400m individual medley at the Olympics after qualifying second-fastest and leading at the halfway stage of the final.
Clareburt was the top Commonwealth swimmer in the final at the worlds with Australian Brendon Smith, the bronze medallist from Tokyo, placing fifth.
This week, he is back in action in the 200m individual medley with heats beginning on Wednesday.
It was a strong opening day from New Zealand swimmers.
Erika Fairweather finished sixth in the final of the women’s 400m freestyle in 4:04.73 – 6.58sec back from brilliant United States swimmer Katie Ledecky. It was the 16th gold medal for Ledecky at the world championships, five more than any other female swimmer in history.
Fifteen-year-old Canadian Summer McIntosh announced herself as a future challenger to Ledecky, taking silver in 3:59.39.
Fairweather, 18, lowered her 400m freestyle heats time by just over a second, slightly off her time of 4:04.37 at the New Zealand championships in April.