Clareburt targets Olympic qualifying times at NZ swimming champs

World champion swimmer Lewis Clareburt wants to go fast at this week’s National Champs in Hawkes Bay.

Clareburt has qualified for this year’s Olympics after winning the 400m individual medley at the World Champs in February and he’s also set to race in the 200m individual medley and 200m butterfly in Paris, despite not having swum under the qualifying times in those events this year.

“I’ve already achieved the standard, so even if I don’t hit those marks this week, I’ll still be able to race in those events in Paris, as far as I know, because I’ve gone under those times previously.”

However, he’s still keen to go under those Olympic qualifying times at the Nationals.

“At the World Champs I was going from fast event to fast event to fast event, going through heats, semis and finals and also try and qualify, so I ended up getting absolutely rolled.

“This competition [NZ Swimming Championships] I get to solely focus on achieving the times so that should give me a little more of an advantage to reach those times again. I’ve done them before, so I should be able to do them again.”

Clareburt, a double Commonwealth Games gold medallist, confirmed the 400m and 200 individual medley and 200m butterfly, will be his main focus in Paris, but at the Nationals he’s racing in all the 200m events, backstroke, freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly and medley and he said he could compete in some of those races at the Olympics, should he go under the qualifying times.

“If I qualify for other events, I’m still yet to decide if I will do them in Paris. But I’ll probably just do my top three again.”

The Wellington swimmer, who’s now based in Auckland with his new coach, said he’ll go “hell for leather” in his events at the Nationals.

“This is an opportunity to practice the race processes and race under a pressure environment where I have to swim fast and try and achieve good times and really just nail the little technical aspects while I’m under the load of racing.”

After the NZ Swimming Champs Clareburt has settled on much busier schedule than usual as he prepares to chase gold at the Paris Olympic Games, which start in July.

“Lots of racing. A hell of a lot of racing compared to what I’ve done in the past before major events. I’m going to do a few competitions in Australia to race some of my competitors over there. There’s a Japanese guy, Daiya Seto, who’s been based there since last July and he’s one of the best in my event so I’ll go and race him a couple of times in the next couple of months leading in to Paris.

“I have just been lacking a bit of race experience over the last couple of years and I feel like the more I race the less pressure I will put on the main event, the Olympics. So if I can get in the mindset of racing more often while still being able to capture the load through training, I thought I would give myself a better chance at the pinnacle events.

And Clareburt has clear goals for Paris.

“It would be awesome to be on the podium. New Zealand hasn’t done that since the 1996 Olympics, so it would be pretty cool to be able to do that for the country and my team.

“Though I know full well a lot of it is out of my control, it’s just about how fast I can swim and if my competitors are faster on the day, that’s just how it goes.”

Clareburt is the current 400m individual medley World Champion and he believes that event will be his best shot at Olympic gold.

“For sure. It’s my bread and butter and the one I target the most on a daily basis and that’s the most likely to be the one I’ll get a medal in.”

Clareburt’s first individual race at the National Champs is today’s 200m freestyle.