Erika Fairweather, the outstanding New Zealand swimmer in Paris, put in a fine performance today to qualify seventh for the women’s 800m final.
Fairweather, who has already finished fourth in the 400m and seventh in the 200m, as well as helping the 200m freestyle relay team make the final, swam a beautifully paced race.
She took the lead at about the 200-metre mark and relinquished it 150 metres later. With Australian Lani Pallister setting a hot pace, and German Isabel Gose chasing her hard, the race tempo was challenging.
But Fairweather maintained her rhythm well and finished so strongly that over the last 50 metres she gathered in Frenchwoman Anastasia Kirpichnikova and earned third place in the race, in a time of 8min 22.22s. Pallister’s winning time was 8min 20.21s.
There are some great swimmers in the 800m final, American Katie Ledecky and Australian Ariarne Titmus among them, but Fairweather, 20, thoroughly deserves to be rubbing shoulders with them.
New Zealand’s other 800m swimmer, Eve Thomas, was timed at 8min 33.25s and was 12th overall.
Cameron Gray was the other New Zealander in action in the pool today, in the men’s 100m butterfly. Gray recorded 53.83s, for 24th place overall and was unable to advance to the semi-finals. Hungarian Kristof Milak was the fastest qualifier, in 50.19s.