Clareburt confident despite Covid
WELLINGTON: Olympic finalist Lewis Clareburt has had his preparations for next month's World Championships hit by Covid19, the latest hurdle in what at times has been a difficult year for him.
Clareburt is currently laid low by the coronavirus and has not been in the pool for a week.
The 22yearold, who won a bronze medal in the 400 medley at the 2019 world champs, was just about to finish a block of training when he was forced out of the pool.
‘‘It's a big disruption having a week out of the pool. It's not ideal, but it's not life threatening for the world champs, so I'm confident a week out won't stop me swimming fast in Budapest.
‘‘We were in the fourth [and last] week of a block of heavy training, so it was an important week.’’
He hopes to be back in the pool later this week, but has to go through a strict health and safety check before getting the go ahead.
‘‘Swimming is a high cardiovascular
sport and that's where Covid hits you the hardest, so I'll have to see a sports doctor to make sure that I'm safe to get back in the pool and won't risk getting long Covid or suffer any other longstanding issues.’’
Clareburt is still keen to swim all the events he had planned to at the world champs, including the 200 and 400
individual medley and one of the mixed relays.
He will have a couple of weeks in Slovakia before the World Champs and will then stay in Europe before the Birmingham Commonwealth Games at the end of July.
The world champs will be his first international competition since the Olympics.
That lack of top level competition has been difficult.
‘‘It would have been awesome to just go to Australia to train with those guys, but it's been a quiet 10 months.
‘‘It's tough trying to find the motivation to train when you can't actually see anything on the horizon.
‘‘There was a few months there when I was pretty flat and didn't really enjoy turning up to the pool and working hard.
‘‘However, I've had a good couple of months of training leading up to world champs and Commonwealth Games, so it's made me more excited to go away.
‘‘I'm just excited for the rest of this year. It's all about racing and a time to travel again, hopefully have a bit of fun because that's what helps you to train at the end of the day.’’ — RNZ