A last-chance meeting in Hamilton over the weekend resulted in just one more competitor breaking the qualifying standard.
Northland swimmer Hayley McIntosh recorded a lifetime best to qualify for Tokyo in the women’s 1500m freestyle.
She clocked a time of 16min 28.96sec, which shaved more than 6sec off her personal best and was 3sec under the qualifying standard.
She is the sixth New Zealander to qualify for an individual event in Tokyo.
Lewis Clareburt (200m and 400m individual medley), Ali Galyer (200m backstroke), Fairweather (400m freestyle), Eve Thomas (1500m freestyle) and Zac Reid (800m freestyle) had already met the qualification standard.
Former Otago swimmer Carina Doyle, who is now based in the North Shore, is also expected to be nominated for the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay.
The Olympic squad is set to be formally named next week with the selection to be confirmed by the New Zealand Olympic Committee selection panel.
Dunedin swim coach and national coach Lars Humer said it really was a good performance by McIntosh.
He said to get swimmers to reach the qualifying standard two months after the national championships in Auckland was a very big ask.
Dunedin swimmer Caitlin Deans came up short of the qualifying time as did Luan Grobbelaar while Fairweather again fell short of the A qualifying time in the 200m freestyle.
But she has already qualified with an A qualifying time in the 400m and with a B qualifying time in the 200m freestyle she should be able to compete in the shorter distance in Tokyo
New Zealand finished 10th in the 4x200m relay at the world championships in 2019 and qualified automatically for event.
Humer said Fairweather just went to Hamilton to get some racing in and that had worked well.
If all borders were open and travel was safe, Fairweather would have lined up in the weekend in Monaco in the first leg of the Male Nostrum swim tour which has attracted most of the best swimmers in the world.
"So we are treating Hamilton like Monaco. And though Erika did not get the qualifying mark, if she had swum that time in Monaco she would have won," Humer said.
Fairweather recorded 1min 57.98sec, just over 0.5sec outside the qualifying mark
The Neptune Queen’s Birthday meet at Moana Pool this weekend is seen by Humer as another leg of the Male Nostrum tour.
"So Dunedin is going to be like Barcelona to us. It is another meet to get used to and see how we go."
He said the plan for Fairweather had been given a boost by the Dunedin City Council agreeing to lift the barrier in the middle of the 50m pool for a week and let Fairweather and others swim straight 50m lengths.
Humer said there had been no hesitation from the council when he asked, which was great.
Fairweather would train for a week at Moana Pool next month and then head to Auckland for another week’s training before going to Tokyo.
Humer said Deans and Grobbelaar performed well and he was looking at the long road to next year’s Commonwealth Games, and the world champs and the Olympics in Paris in 2024.
