Lewis Clareburt of New Zealand wins the Men’s 400m Individual Medley final at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha 2024 Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Swimmer Lewis Clareburt said his World Championship victory in Doha this morning is a major boost after his confidence took a hit in recent years.
Clareburt completed the meeting in Doha with victory in the 400m individual medley, the same event he won Commonwealth Games gold in.
It is New Zealand's second ever world title after Erika Fairweather won the 400 freestyle last week.
The 24 year old admitted he hadn't been at his best recently.
"It's been a tough couple of years for me, I think I lost a lot of confidence in myself and my ability," Clareburt said.
"I guess I was able to swim a pretty good time (today) and it gives me more confidence now moving towards Paris.
It is Clareburt's first ever World Title and his second World Championship medal following his bronze in the same event in 2019.
His time of 4:09.72 qualified him for the Paris Olympic Games.
It comes just a couple of months after he decided to leave Wellington and move to Auckland to train under Mitch Nairn.
"It was a huge risk to take to leave Gary (Wellington coach Gary Hollywood), my home and the set-up that was working for me.
"But seeing results straight away is promising, but we've still got six more months of work to do together because I know come Paris it's going to be a whole lot faster to get on the podium.
"It's a good test to see how our relationship is going."
Lewis Clareburt of New Zealand wins the Men’s 400m Individual Medley final at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha 2024. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Today Clareburt celebrated his win with a pukana and mimicked shooting an arrow from a bow.
"A whole bunch of emotions came together at once, I didn't want to lose that race. "
He says the celebration was a copy of what he had seen MMA fighter Israel Adesanya do after a fight.
Though it hasn't been all plain sailing for Clareburt over the last two weeks.
He missed the Olympic qualifying standard for the 200 medley and the 200 butterfly and he hopes to achieve that during the national champs in April.
Today he lost his bag containing his swim suits, while having lunch between the heats and final.
Security had it back to him within a half an hour.
So for the first time ever New Zealand will have two world champions heading into an Olympics.
"Unheard off said Fairweather, how cool is that.
"We've heard the national anthem played twice in a week, it was just unreal."
Fairweather also won a silver medal in the 200 freestyle and bronze in the 800 freestyle.