Kiwi swim star Lewis Clareburt has been ruled out of the surf life saving world championships in Italy, after breaking his arm skateboarding on an Australian holiday.
Clareburt, 23, won two gold medals and a bronze at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, but will now miss a full month of training, after the untimely fall.
Luckily, the fracture to his radial head in his right arm doesn't require a cast, but he will be limited to only kicking in the pool.
Clareburt wishes he had a better explanation for the accident, but admits he was guilty of being preoccupied by a local beer festival, while holidaying at Gold Coast.
"It's not even a fun story," he told Stuff. "I'd love to say I was doing a kick-flip or something.
"I wasn't even really moving. There must have been a beer festival on and I was just looking over the fence... I just got distracted, slipped off backwards and fell weird.
"I knew straight away that I'd done something wrong, because I tried standing up and I felt like I was about to faint. I might just stick to the surfboard."
Clareburt was expected to compete at the surf life saving event later this month, after being named in the New Zealand team, but will now likely work with coach Garry Hollywood, as the pair build for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
"He managed himself extremely well when he got COVID and then he got food poisoning before the world championships," Hollywood told Stuff. "He pulled out some big swims, but it would be nice to get a clear sense of when he's going to be 100 percent to kick off another big leg of the journey.
"It's the same as Ryan Lochte did in America in the build-up to the Olympics - it must be an IM [Individual Medley] thing.
"He's never been afraid," he said. "That risk part of his nature has helped him and now it's got in the way a little bit, but I've learnt, over time, the ideal perfect plan is never executed."
