‘Morning blues’ to blame
Swimmer swamped in final leg of medley after struggling with early morning start
Lewis Clareburt says he was below his best because of the morning start to his 400m individual medley final in Tokyo yesterday. Clareburt had a golden opportunity to join an exclusive club of New Zealand swimmers to stand on an Olympic podium and was in contention before fading in the last leg.
He hit the wall in 4m 11.22s to finish well behind American Chase Kalisz at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
Clareburt wasn’t among the frontrunners after the butterfly but raced to the front after the backstroke leg.
He gave the lead back to Kalisz on his troublesome breaststroke leg and had nothing in the tank in the freestyle as he was swamped by most of the field. He was bitterly disappointed to finish two seconds slower than his heat time.
“This morning, I got up at 5.30am and tried to do everything I could to get over the morning blues,” said Clareburt.
“Everyone has morning blues and it affected me a little more than everyone, and in the final 50m, that's when the piano fell.
“I was gutted. I could tell in the last 100m, I was there with the guys. I could see I was up in the mix and I could also see everyone passing me in that last 50.
“My lungs were gone. The body was freezing up and the lactic [acid] just hits you.”
The 22-year-old Wellingtonian highlighted his medal credentials last night when he knocked 0.38s off his national record in winning his heat. He finished second-fastest qualifier but ranked yesterday’s swim an anaemic two out of 10.
“I was in such a good position going into that last 100m. I was so close to bringing home a medal for us. It’s been so long since we managed to get a [swimming] medal and I was so close but so far away.”
The last New Zealander to win a medal in the pool was Danyon Loader, who won two golds in Atlanta 25 years ago, before Clareburt was even an apple in the eyes of his parents.
Since then, Moss Burmester and Lauren Boyle have come close to joining Loader in the Olympic medal club that includes Jean Stewart, who won bronze in 1952, Anthony Mosse and Paul Kingsman, who won the same coloured medals in Seoul in 1988.
Few have carried quite as much expectation as Clareburt, coached by Irishman Gary Hollywood out of the Capital Swim Club. He put his hand up in this most disrupted of Olympic cycles by winning world championship bronze in 2019.
“That first few hours after the race were tough. It was pretty hard to see those guys up on the podium and me not.
“I was messaging Moss Burmester and he said ‘ you've got to move on, swallow the pill and get over it’.”
Clareburt has also qualified for the 200m individual medley.