Simon Watts
Erika Fairweather is closing in on the magical four-minute barrier in the 400m freestyle.
Teenage swimming sensation Erika Fairweather has lowered her own national record but just missed out on breaking the magical four-minute barrier in her specialist 400-metre freestyle event.
The 19-year-old from Dunedin’s Neptune Swim Club has won gold in the 400m free at the New Zealand swimming championships on Monday evening, in new a personal best of 4:00.62, just 24 hours after taking out the 200m women’s freestyle on Sunday.
Despite a brilliant swim from the second-placed Eve Thomas, who just missed out on a personal best but went under the qualification standard for the world champs, the only serious contest in the 400m freestyle final at the Sir Owen Glenn National Aquatic Centre in Auckland was between the world-class Fairweather and the clock.
The Olympian was chasing the four-minute mark, hoping to become just the fifth woman in the world to do so, but was pragmatic about her result and when she might go sub-four minutes.
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“I’m stoked, a PB is a PB right,” Fairweather said.
Despite lowering her personal best from her previous national record of 4:00:97, set at the South Island champs in Invercargill at the start of March, Fairweather acknowledged she was actively swimming towards the four-minute mark on Monday.
“I would have loved to have cracked it today, obviously it didn’t happen; I’ve got it in the back of my pocket; I know it’s going to come out soon, it’s just a matter of when,” she said.
Swimming out of lane four, Fairweather cruised to the lead and swum solid sectionals before a blistering last 50m in 29.07 seconds helped her lower her previous best.
After sticking just behind Fairweather for the first 300m, Thomas finished in a time of 4:08.40, just outside her personal best, with Caitlin Deans claiming bronze.
