New Zealand’s Lewis Clareburt Rips 4:09.87 400 IM National Record

NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (NZL)

New Zealand saw a national record go down in flames on night 2 of these National Championships, courtesy of 21-year-old Lewis Clareburt.

The Capital Swim Club athlete just ripped the fastest 400m IM of his life by a mile, clinching gold here in Auckland in a speedy time of 4:09.87. That outing tore his previous own national record and career-quickest of 4:12.07 to shreds, with that previous outing representing the result he put up for bronze at the 2019 FINA World Championships.

Prior to that, Clareburt surprised the men’s 4IM field at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, with the Kiwi busting out a time there on the Gold Coast of 4:14.42 to nab the bronze.

Comparing Clareburt’s 2019 swim to tonight’s powerhouse performance, the dynamo was following the same path on the front end, situated at 2:00.61 at the halfway point compared to 2:00.43 nearly 2 years ago. The real difference came on the breaststroke, where Clareburt managed to drop his split of 1:12.71 from Gwangju down to 1:11.35 this evening. He also dropped significant time in the freestyle leg, closing in 28.84.

Previous Record Splits:

Clareburt has now become the second-fastest swimmer in the world this season, only behind Japan’s ace Daiya Seto and his 4:09.02 from just days ago.

2020-2021 LCM Men 400 IM

CarsonUSA
Foster
07/23
4:08.46
2Daiya
Seto
JPN4:09.0204/03
3Chase
Kalisz
USA4:09.0906/13
4Brendon
Smith
AUS4:09.2707/24
5Lewis
Clareburt
NZL4:09.4907/24
View Top 26»

With his first-ever sub-4:10 result, New Zealand’s Clareburt now checks in as the 13th fastest performer of all-time en route to becoming a bonafide medal contender for Tokyo.

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Kiwiswimchick
2 years ago

Awesome to see a NZer doing well in the pool – we don’t have many swimming superstars here and Lewis is such a lovely humble person also. Wishing him all the best for Tokyo and beyond.

Last edited 2 years ago by Kiwiswimchick
Kiwi hot
2 years ago

Beautiful swim.

dave
2 years ago

just to note the games record for the Commonwealth Games is 4:11.04, and Clareburt’s time is also faster than the Australian Open record of 4:10.14, so is probably an Oceania Record.
The Commonwealth record is 4:09.62 so not far off.

Aussie Crawl
2 years ago

Well done to Lewis and Gary his coach.
Quality people.

Verram
2 years ago

Wow.. just curious what’s the commonwealth record ? Surely that’s close to it

Verram
Reply to  Verram
2 years ago

Ooh almost got it !! Not sure the aussie boys could respond to that quick time .. TFH was a 4:10s swimmer back in the day

Gheko
2 years ago

Could be a real threat in Tokyo

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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