Swimming: Lewis Clareburt already eyeing improvement after World Championships success

Lewis Clareburt claimed a bronze medal at the World Championships in 2019. Photo / Getty Images

Lewis Clareburt knows he needs to go faster.

It might not be the reaction you'd expect from someone who had just posted a personal best and claimed a bronze medal at the World Championships, but it's the realistic approach the Kiwi swimmer is taking.

Clareburt blazed home in the 400m individual medley final at the World Championships in Korea this week in 4min12.07sec to break the national record by more than two seconds. In doing so, he became just the fifth Kiwi to World Championships medal, joining Gary Hurring (1978), Anthony Mosse (1986), Danyon Loader (1994) and Lauren Boyle (2013, 2015).

Speaking to Radio Sport, Clareburt said he still had plenty of work to do if he wanted to have a chance at repeating the feat at the Olympic Games in Tokyo next year.

"It's a huge confidence booster and hopefully it'll slingshot me into next year," Clareburt said.

"I'm expecting that I'll have to go at least four seconds faster to even think about getting a medal in the final at the Olympics just because of how fast the Olympics will be next year."

The 20-year-old finished three seconds behind first placed Daiya Seto of Japan at the World Championships, and said he was shocked to have finished in third place.

Clareburt went into the event with his sights set on simply qualifying for the final and post a good enough time to qualify for the Olympic Games.

"The other guys in the race, their entry times were a lot faster than mine and a lot faster than the time I had actually done. But there are so many factors that make people not go as fast in the final as their personal best so I guess I was lucky enough that I was able to pull out a personal best and those other people in the race weren't able to hit their times so it gave me a good opportunity to sneak a medal.

"I definitely didn't expect them to not perform like they should have."