Taranaki man Zac Reid couldn’t make the 800m freestyle final, but still recorded a personal best in the final event of last night’s swim session.
Reid, 21, was drawn in the second heat and won it impressively in 7min 53.06s, which chipped half a second off his previous best. He swam a “reverse split”, with the second half of his race quicker than the first half. His strong finish hinted that he has further improvement in him over this distance.
With the top eight advancing straight to the final, Reid was placed 18th in the field of 33.
The fastest qualifier was Ukrainian Mykhallo Romanchuk, with 7min 41.28s.
This is the first time since 1904 the 800m freestyle has been on the men’s Olympic schedule.