Commonwealth Games, Day Five Finals: Lewis Clareburt Repeats as 400 IM Champ
Four years has found Lewis Clareburt in the same spot relative to his Commonwealth peers: Atop the podium, and just .02 off of history.
The New Zealand swimmer repeated as the champion of the men’s 400 individual medley at the Commonwealth Games on Tuesday. His time of 4:08.72 was .02 off the time he won with in Birmingham, England, four years ago.
Clareburt was 2.30 seconds ahead of the field at the Tollcross International Swimming Central in Glasgow. He got the better of Australia’s William Petric, who grabbed silver in 4:11.02, just .36 up on Canada’s Lorne Wigginton.
Aussie veteran Brendon Smith was fourth in 4:12.63, with England’s Max Litchfield fifth.
Clareburt was in second place after 100 meters and fourth at the midway point, with Wigginton taking the race out as expected. Clareburt and Petric progressed in breaststroke, the Kiwi in 34.52-35.48 and Petric even quicker in 34.52-35.42 to move to first and second, respectively.
But Clareburt put him away on the first 50 of freestyle, opening up another nine tenths on him, then a further eight tenths on the final 50.
It’s the third medal of the meet for Clareburt, who won gold in the 200 butterfly and settled for silver in the 200 IM but set a national record that landed four tenths behind Duncan Scott’s meet mark. The 200 fly was also a successful title defense from 2022.
Wigginton’s medal is just the second on the men’s side for a thin Canadian roster, joining Josh Liendo’s gold in the 100 fly.
It’s more disappointment for Litchfield. The 31-year-old made his debut for England at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. He withdrew from the 2018 squad due to a shoulder injury and the 2022 team due to undisclosed personal reasons. He’s also finished fourth at the Olympics in this event not once, not twice but each of the last three editions dating back to 2016.
It was a threadbare field, with 12 entries culled to 11 on Isaac Thompson’s scratch in prelims. Prelims still produced three 4:16s, but Clareburt winning the second prelims heat in 4:16.49, .05 ahead of first-heat winner Petric. Litchfield was second in the second heat in 4:16.82, and Wigginton’s 4:17.23 gave four finalists within .74 seconds of each other.
