Wellington swimmer Lewis Clareburt pulled out another personal best tonight, this time in the 200m individual medley.
Clareburt’s time of 1min 57.27s was the third fastest overall behind Michael Andrew of the United States and Jeremy Desplanches of Switzerland, so he will have a favoured central lane for the semi-finals tomorrow morning.
It’s heady company again for Clareburt, who has already made the 400m individual medley final in Tokyo.
He seemed to be labouring tonight, but stormed home over the last 50 metres, picking up nearly three seconds on Andrew.
“I couldn’t see anyone at the start, so I knew I was behind,” he said. “I thought I’d better get moving if I wanted to make the semis.”
Clareburt said he’d had a tough few days in Tokyo since the 4000 IM. “I had to get my mindset back on racing. I just wanted to go out there and have fun and race fast.”
The New Zealand women’s 4 x 200m freestyle team of Erika Fairweather, Carina Doyle, Eve Thomas and Ali Galyer recorded 8min 06.16s and finished 12th.