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Lewis Clareburt, Eve Thomas, and Carter Swift Shine On Night 1 of 2024 NZL Olympic Trials

2024 NEW ZEALAND SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The first finals session of the 2024 New Zealand Swimming Championships is officially in the books. A short session was on the docket, as the night only featured the men’s 400 IM, women’s 1500 freestyle, women’s 400 IM, men’s 800 free, and the men’s and women’s 4×100 free relay.

Coast Swimming Club’s Sam Brown walked away victorious in the men’s 400 IM, where he touched in a final time of 4:22.88. The 20-year-old showcased a strong front-half, splitting 58.19 through the butterfly leg before hitting the 200 turn in 2:03.93. He was a little over 10 seconds off the required time (4:12.50) needed to book a ticket for the Paris Olympics.

Newly-minted World Champion Lewis Clareburt was noticeably absent from the 400 IM, but he’s already pre-qualified with his 4:09.72 time from the Doha World Championships a few months back. He did however swim the 4×100 free relay during the session, where he helped Club 37 earn gold. He contributed a split of 48.45 on the second leg of the relay, with Carter Swift (48.66), Zac Dell (49.00), and Michael Pickett (48.60) rounding out the winning quartet. Their final time of 3:14.71 also represents a new national record, as they downed the previous mark of 3:15.41 from the 2008 Olympic Games.

Swift’s lead-off split of 48.66 checks-in as a new lifetime best, and puts him in contention to challenge the Olympic qualifying time in the individual event (48.34) on Friday.

The fastest split in the field was produced by Coast Swimming Club’s Cameron Gray, with the 20-year-old scorching a time of 48.25 on the second leg. He opened in 23.28 before closing in 24.97.

The women’s 400 free relay was dominated by Club 37 (3:44.00), but they were ultimately disqualified for a false start. Behind them, it was a great race between Coast and North Shore, as the two teams were separated by less than a second at the finish. Coast ultimately snagged gold with the foursome of Zoe Pedersen (56.44), Milan Glintmeyer (56.89), Laura Quilter (56.54), and Madison Kidd (59.12) clocking-in at 3:48.99. North Shore hit the touchpad in 3:49.91 for runner-up status, highlighted by Chelsey Edwards 55.30 split on the third leg.

Eve Thomas, who trains with Dean Boxall’s St. Peters Western squad in Brisbane, Australia, bagged victory in the women’s 1500 free. She hit the wall in 16:07.46 to not only take down her previous best time (16:09.43), but also sneak under the Olympic qualifying time (16:09.09). Thomas took the race out with intent, splitting 4:12.49 over the first 400 before flipping in 8:31.91 at the 800. She was right on pace the whole way to match the qualifying time, but her final closing split of 30.26 really sealed the deal.

Thomas was already pre-qualified for the Paris Olympics in both the 400 free (4:05.87) and 800 free (8:24.86), courtesy of her performances at February’s World Championship meet. At those Worlds in Doha, she was 7th in the 400 free as well as 4th in both the 800 and 1500 free events.

The sole swimmer under the 5-minute barrier in the women’s 400 IM was Zyleika Pratt-Smith (4:59.32). The 20-year-old Coast Swimming athlete took control of the field from the very first stroke, never relinquishing the lead. The closest competitor to Pratt-Smith was Raumati’s Maia Adams (5:03.17), who touched about four seconds back.

Brendan Visser, just 18, dominated the men’s 800 free. He finished in 8:18.37 to clear the field by over 10 seconds, but was a bit shy of the 7:51.65 time required to qualify for Paris. Nonetheless, the swim from Visser was just off his best time of 8:16.67.

New Zealand Olympic Qualifiers Through Day One, (With Events Pre-Qualified from the 2024 World Championships In Italics):

  • Lewis Clareburt – men’s 400m IM (4:09.72)
  • Erika Fairweather – women’s 200m free (1:55.77), 400m free (3:59.44), 800m free (8:22.26)
  • Eve Thomas – women’s 400m free (4:05.87), 800m free (8:24.86),*1500m free (16:07.46)

*Shows Thomas’ qualification in a new event, but denotes that she was already prequalified in additional events. 

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Adrian
7 months ago

Jeffcoat hit the 100 back OQT during 2023 Worlds, will they take him to Paris?

blueandgold
Reply to  Adrian
6 months ago

Had to be Doha or now.

Daniel
7 months ago

Clareburt hits a PB in 200 Free with 1:47.18. Bodes well for his 200 Fly and IM.

Troyy
Reply to  Daniel
7 months ago

Only a few hundredths outside the NR.

Daniel
7 months ago

Gasson misses qualification in 100 back. Went out a touch slow in 29.60 and came back in 30.91.

Daniel
7 months ago

Fairweather hits 1:55.45 in 200 heats. Just 0.01 outside of her National Record. Hopefully it goes later today.

Troyy
Reply to  Daniel
7 months ago

Thanks for the updates.

Bob
Reply to  Daniel
7 months ago

Gasson 60.36 in 1BK. Fastest textile swim by a kiwi.

Daniel
Reply to  Bob
7 months ago

The women’s team are a 53 second freestyler away from having a very useful medley relay. Not that they would enter…

Aquajosh
7 months ago

Fun fact: Eve Thomas is the daughter of British multi-Olympic medalist Sarah Hardcastle. Her mother’s time in the 800 of 8:24.77 from 1986 still has her beat.

Oceanian
7 months ago

Some decent performances there. Impressive 4x1free NR without Gray in the team.

NZ will never be a swimming super-power but they have some excellent swimmers atm.

Kiwiswim
Reply to  Oceanian
6 months ago

Relay is faster than top 8.at Doha too

Splash
7 months ago

Transom was 54.4 leading off but her team was DQ’d for an early takeover

EagleCantStopFly
7 months ago

Or a few tenths and get that Oly A and his Natty Record back

Last edited 7 months ago by EagleCantStopFly

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Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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