Radford kick-starts Kiwi swimmers world campaign
Rotorua teenager Kane Radford gets New Zealand’s campaign underway at the 12th Fina World Swimming Championships in Melbourne tomorrow.
The 16-year-old will take part in the first event of the championships, the 5km Open Water Swim and follows this with his main event, the 10km race on Wednesday, both held off St Kilda beach.
Radford completed his final preparations in Christchurch with new national Open Water Coach Carl Gordon before flying out to Melbourne yesterday.
Radford is the current Oceania Open Water Champion, established at last year’s event in Cairns. He has some knowledge of the St Kilda course, finishing sixth in the Australian championship late last year which was the Australian selection event for the worlds.
The young Rotorua swimmer, coached by Kirk Taylor in Tauranga and New Zealand assistant coach Donna Bouzaid at West Auckland Aquatics, has had a stellar age group career. He holds the national age group records for 12, 13 and 14 years over 800m and 1500m freestyle and went under Danyon Loader’s 1500m 16 years mark last year.
He was 26th in the world championships over 10kms last year in Naples as a 15-year-old.
“The 5km is not his main event but will give him a chance to get the feel of the water and get a good swim under his belt,” coach Gordon said.
Gordon should know, as New Zealand’s best open water swimmer. The current coach in Ashburton competed in the first ever Open Water World Championships back in 1991, in the Swan River in Perth and again three years later in Italy, held over 25kms.
“Kane is very young and an excellent prospect if he can stay in the sport. The aim here will be to improve his world ranking this year.”
Radford wants to be in the New Zealand team when the Open Water Championship is added to Olympic programme in Beijing. To achieve this, his main aim is next year’s world championships in Seville, where a top-10 finish will guarantee him a spot in the Olympics, and a top-16 finish could earn a start subject to other selection criteria.
“So it will be important for Kane to move up in the rankings in Melbourne to show he is on track for next year.”
The race starts at noon local time tomorrow.
For further information:
Ian Hepenstall, Sports Media NZ, Tel 0275 613181, E: ianhep@xtra.co.nz
