Clareburt ponders Paris podium
Lewis Clareburt has a bigger fish to hook in Australian waters, as he and Erika Fairweather return to the pool this week still buoyed by their respective world title swims.
History-makers as New Zealand’s only two long course world champions in Doha in February, the pair are the star attractions at the national championships near Hastings, which offer a final chance to achieve Olympic qualifying times 15 weeks out from the big show in Paris.
Clareburt (400m individual medley) and Fairweather (400m freestyle) returned from the worlds with gold medals in their premier events, in which they were Olympic finalists in 2021.
That lofty perch atop the podium in Doha was a significant psychological boost, Clareburt says, despite the absence of some of their toughest rivals.
“For sure. Since Tokyo – not just me and Erika but the whole New Zealand team – we have a new motivation and a new sense of confidence that we are competitive on the world stage,” Clareburt said.
“We might have just been lacking that previously. Now we know that being on the podium at an Olympics is within reach. It’s a pretty cool environment that we’re in when we head away.”
Clareburt is chasing Olympic qualifying times in his two lesser events, the 200m butterfly (Friday) and 200m IM (Saturday), while Fairweather is again looking to break the 4-minute mark in the 400m freestyle at Hawke’s Bay Regional Aquatic Centre tomorrow. Clareburt won’t contest the 400 IM, he’ll keep his powder dry for the Australian open championships at the Gold Coast on April 20, where one of his closest rivals, Daiya Seto, looms.
Seto, of Japan, won the world 400 IM title in 2019 when Clareburt snared bronze, and those placings were reversed in Doha when Clareburt won gold in a time of 4:09.72, ahead of Great Britain’s Max Litchfield and Seto, who now trains in Australia.
“He’s one of the guys we want to beat so it’d be nice to go over there and give him a run.”
Clareburt’s time in Doha – 1.02sec outside his personal best from his 2022 Commonwealth Games gold-medal swim – is the third fastest in the world this season.
World record-holder Leon Marchand of France is scheduled to contest his first long course 400 IM this weekend in the United States – where he just dominated the NCAA championships.
Marchand’s mind-boggling world record of 4:02.50 marks him out as a red-hot favourite for gold in Paris. Clareburt and his coach, Mitch Nairn, are watching, analysing and trying to copy his every move, from afar. “He’s moved our event quite far forward in the last couple of years.”