Radford youngest finisher in 36th place at world swim championships
Sixteen-year-old Kane Radford has finished in 36th place in the 10km open water swim at the 12th Fina World Championships in Melbourne today.
Radford, the youngest finisher in the race, had to cope with repeated jellyfish stings but produced a solid performance in a strong field at St Kilda.
He swam confidently in the middle of a lead pack of more than 30 swimmers for the first three laps of a 2.5km circuit but drifted when the pace picked up on the final lap to finish six minutes behind the winner.
Russian Vladimir Dyatchin edged out the 5km gold medallist Thomas Lurz (Germany) by 6/100ths of a second in a photo-finish of the 10km race with another Russian Evgeny Drattseu, the 5km silver medallist, finishing third.
New Zealand Open Water Coach Carl Gordon said the young Rotorua swimmer had impressed and he believes his performance was better than the 26th placing in Naples last year.
“This was an exceptionally strong field and there were 51 starters. Kane was the youngest out there and he improved from his swim in the 5km,” Gordon said.
“This is not like pool swimming. There are a lot more variables. There are swimmers around to knock you and you have to be much more aware of your body, when you can put the pressure on and when you can’t. And you have to position yourself to go with the moves but to get the most benefit from drafting.
“The top swimmers here are all mid-20s or older and they all swim 15minutes low for the 1500m in the pool.
“Kane is just 16 and has a long way to go. But he turned quite a few heads here as a young man with enormous potential.”
Gordon said there were significant numbers of jellyfish off the beach at St Kilda and Radford was stung several times.
The New Zealand pool team arrived in Melbourne yesterday from their training base at Thredbo in the Snowy Mountains and had a training session today.
They do not get to train in the competition pool at Rod laver Arena until late this week with the competition to begin on Sunday.
Results, 10km Open Water Swim, World Swimming Championships, St Kilda, Melbourne:
Men: Vladimir Dyatchin (RUS) 1:55.32.52, 1; Thomas Lurz (GER) 1:55.32.58, 2; Evgeny Drattseu (RUS) 1:55:47.31, 3. Kane Radford (NZL) 2:01.36.82, 36.
For further information:
Ian Hepenstall, Sports Media NZ, Tel 0275 613181, E: ianhep@xtra.co.nz
