Swimming: Kane Radford reconsiders career goals

The Olympic dream is over for Bay of Plenty swimmer Kane Radford but a countdown to the Commonwealth Games might have only begun.

Radford's dream of Olympic glory ended in Portugal when the 21-year-old finished in 27th place in a 10km open water qualifying race, 1m 44s behind eventual winner, Beijing 1500m freestyle champion Oussama Mellouli (Tunisia).

The Rotorua swimmer needed to finish in the top nine to qualify for the London Olympics and although Radford swam alongside Mellouli at the head of the field for the four of six laps before the Tunisian turned up the pace and flew past the Kiwi with speed which Radford has not witnessed in open water swimming before.

Radford's mother Bronwen said her son was "gutted" with the result.

"He had a huge amount of support and really wanted to do this for everyone at home but he was pretty gutted not to have qualified."

She was disappointed for her son but believed he still had plenty to offer swimming.

"It's the toughest sport out there [individually]. He has put an incredible amount of work into [this campaign]. Life gives you a hand [of cards] for reasons we don't know and we have to live with what is dealt. He really deserved to be there but it wasn't to be."

However, she didn't believe it was the end of the road for her son.

"After he broke Danyon Loader's record in the 1500m he said he may consider competing in that event at the Commonwealth Games in two years time. So that is still a possibility if he wants to pursue that dream."

While disappointed with his swim, Radford hadn't ruled out having another crack in four years time.

However, he would have to sit down with his coach Mark Regan to plan his future in the sport.

"I gave it everything and it wasn't my day.

"It is all pretty disappointing although looking at the age of those guys I still have plenty more years hopefully to come back and do what those guys did today in four years time and being up there."