Neptune's Erika Fairweather put on a world class showcase in the deep south at the South Island Long Course Championships, shattering her New Zealand record in the 400m Freestyle to become the eighth fastest woman of all time over the distance.
19 year old Fairweather lit up the pool on night one of the championships, slashing over a second off the New Zealand record she set at the Olympic Games in 2021. Touching the wall in a stunning 4:00.97, Erika recorded the second fastest time of 2023 so far, and becomes the eighth fastest performer of all time. Beyond being perhaps the fastest ever non-tapered performace, another impressive thing about Fairweather's swim was the unbelievably even splitting over the course of the race. With an opening 100m split of 59.04, Erika followed with a 1:01.51 and 1:01.27, before closing in a 59.15.
Erika joins a star-studded list of all time performers, see the list of all time top 10 performers below...
The following evening Erika went on to break the New Zealand Record in the 200m Freestyle in a time of 1:56.73, taking less than one tenth of a second off Lauren Boyle's mark set at the Commonwealth Games in 2014.
