Record breaker expected to be a threat at Paralympics

Coach Michael Sage said he's got plenty of room for improvement.

RECORD BREAKER: Liam Schluter. Picture: Warren Lynam

SWIMMING: Kawana Waters coach Michael Sage expects Liam Schluter to vie for gold at the 2020 Paralympics if he continues his impressive trajectory.

The 20-year-old smashed his own world record for the 400m freestyle (S14) at the national championships at Adelaide on Sunday night, when he clocked 4min06.53sec.

He went five seconds quicker than his previous mark, in finishing behind Brendan Hall (S9), 4:16.89, in the multi-class race.

It's a non-Olympic event but Schluter's performance raised plenty of eyebrows ahead of his pet event, the 200m freestyle on Wednesday.

"It was a very good swim," Sage said.

"He's in a good place. He's done some really good training. He's got stronger in the gym and he's still growing."

Schluter reached two finals at the 2016 Games in Rio, including a fifth in the 200m freestyle and he claimed the silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in that event.

But Sage said he had plenty of room for improvement.

"He's far from reached his potential," he said.

The coach believed he could even give the 200m world record a shake on Wednesday.

"That will be the really exciting one," he said.

"That's the one that's highly competitive. Everyone around the world aims for that in the S14 classification. He's about half a second off that and after that 400, where he's taken a nice chunk of time off, he's threatening for it.

"He's just got to put the race together on that night."

It's all shaping up for next year's Paralympics.

"He hasn't filled out yet and technically he's still getting better," Sage said.

"He's still not up where we want it (skills) to be yet but he makes up for it with hard work. He's tough and is a good racer.

"He'll be in with a shot at the gold at Tokyo if he keeps progressing like this. It's exciting."

Schluter will also contest the 200m individual medley on Tuesday.

He's among eight Kawana Waters swimmers at the national championships.

And they are among a host of Sunshine Coasters at the meeting.

Originally published as Record breaker expected to be a threat at Paralympics