Rotorua's Kane Radford has kept his title as New Zealand's best open water swimmer.
Rotorua's Kane Radford has kept his title as New Zealand's best open water swimmer.
Rotorua's Kane Radford has claimed his fourth national title in a row at the New Zealand Open Water Championships on Lake Taupo.
He won his fourth straight 10km title on Saturday on Lake Taupo before winning the national 5km race yesterday.
It marks the start of a big year forRadford who is looking to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics in the 10km open-water event.
His biggest event this year will be the FINA World Championships in Russia in late July, where the top-10 earn automatic qualification to the Olympics. Radford, who is based in Perth, said he felt comfortable in the lead on Saturday, finishing about five seconds ahead of second-placed Phillip Ryan.
"There was a little bit through the middle there where some of the boys took off and I sort of fell back a little bit but I felt pretty comfortable throughout the whole race just sitting there," he said.
"We can only hopefully go up from here and it's the start of a massive year for me so I've just got to keep on building and getting stronger and stronger."
Meanwhile, in the women's 10km event on Saturday Penelope Hayes (Cambridge) stole the title from race favourite Charlotte Webby. It was only her second 10km ocean swim event.
Hayes, a triathlete, competed in her first 10km open water swim two weeks ago in Penrith and was surprised but pleased with her victory on Saturday. "It was a goal to win but I didn't know if it was possible or not. It's only my second 10km so I still don't really know what to expect when I go out there. It was a bit colder than Penrith a couple of weeks ago.
"I've had a stress fracture in my foot since July so I haven't been able to run and it just provides a racing opportunity away from that." Hayes also won the 5km race yesterday to make it a double for the weekend.
The national open-water championships, which were held as part of the Epic Swim event, are the first stepping stone in the process towards qualifying for the World Championships in July.
Results: Men 10km: 1 Kane Radford (Rotorua) 1:58:40; 2 Phillip Ryan (Waterhole) 1:58:45; 3 Liam Albery (Capital) 1:58:45 Women 10km: 1 Penelope Hayes (St Peter's) 2:10:04; 2 Charlotte Webby (Aquabladz, New Plymouth) 2:15:09; 3 Caitlin Delany (Tasman) 2:21:48 Men 5km: 1 Kane Radford (Rotorua) 59:27; 2 Phillip Ryan (Waterhole) 59:28; 3 Liam Albery (Capital) 59:30 Women 5km: 1 Penelope Hayes (St Peter's) 1:08.21; 2 Bridget Maher (West Auckland) 1:08.23; 3 Abigail Chapman (Pukekohe) 1:08.38
