Teenage swim star Erika Fairweather has fallen narrowly short of an iconic benchmark at the national championships.
Only four women have ever broken four minutes for 400m freestyle and the Kiwi prodigy is determined to become the fifth - but could not achieve that milestone at Auckland's Millennium Institute, despite shaving her own national record to qualify for the world championships
Fairweather, 19, took out the event by almost eight seconds in a time of 4m 00.62s, but was relatively unpushed over the second half of her journey.
"To be honest, I think I knew from the start I would be a little bit off," she told Newshub. "The last 50 was pretty strong from me, so it was pretty remarkable to get that time anyway.
"It's a massive confidence boost. I think that swim puts me about sixth all-time, so just slowly climbing the ladder and hopefully I'll be up there in no time."
The former world junior champion first made a splash in senior ranks, when she shattered Lauren Boyle's national mark to reach the Tokyo Olympics final over 400 metres.
Last year, she captured world short-course silver medals over 200m and 400m freestyle.
Over the weekend, she confirmed her current form, shattering her own 200 metres record twice on the same day to qualify for the world championships at Fukuoka, Japan in July.
"It's an accumulation of a lot of things," said Fairweather. "I've grown up a bit, I've got a bit more experience, I've learnt how to train properly - all of those things added together have made for some great racing."
The swimmers that have broken four minutes are among the greats of the sport. Canadian Summer McIntosh, Aussie Ariarne Titmus, American Katie Ledecky and Italian Federica Pellegrini are all current or former world recordholders over the distance.
"It's coming," insisted Fairweather. "I don't know when, but it will come."
In second, Eve Thomas also dipped under world championship qualifying with 4m 08.40s.
