Clareburt's time was 0.72sec slower when he clinched gold at the world championships in Doha in February. Photo: photosport
New Zealand swimmer Lewis Clareburt was shut out of the medals in the final of the Olympic men's 400m individual medley, finishing sixth in the final.
Clareburt finished just under two seconds off a place on the podium in a race won in spectacular style by French gold medal favourite Leon Marchand.
Marchand pulled away from the start and was never threatened, clocking an Olympic record winning time of 4 minutes 02.95 seconds.
Japan's Matsushita Tomoyuri was some distance back second and American Carson Foster third.
Clareburt's time of 4:10.44 was 0.72sec slower than his time when he clinched world championship gold at the world championships in Doha in February.
"I knew that I'm a better swimmer than what I showed today," Clareburt said.
"But it's the Olympics, and there's no second chances here, right? I just wasn't able to execute the race I wanted to. Sixth is the final result unfortunately."
"The first 200 metres I felt like I swum it just about perfect. I thought I would have more on the breaststroke to give. I felt good on the first 25m of the breaststroke, but then it fell apart a little. I wasn't able to get my rhythm that I like. Then the freestyle I was hoping I had a bit left it the tank to be able to bring it home, but unfortunately I was already too far behind."
Sitting at the side of the pool after the race was a moment of reflection, he said.
"It's been a really tough couple of years, and I guess to have it finish that way, it's not a fairytale ending, so to have these last couple of years of build-up and this was the moment when I was meant to execute, and I had a small reflection on the side of the pool.
"I guess it was a little bit of being overwhelmed in the moment, but also thankful that I was able to finish today and now move on from it."
The wait for New Zealand to break the 28-year medal drought in the Olympic pool goes on.
Erika Fairweather placed fourth in the final for her favoured 400m freestyle event on Sunday.