Rotorua swimmer Kane Radford finished sixth in the 10km open water swim at the junior Pan Pacific championships in Guam today.
The 18-year-old former Oceania champion swam aggressively and led for much of the four laps.
However, he was unable to shake a small group of chasers who out-kicked him on thefinal lap.
American Ryan Feeley won in one hour 53 minutes 37.65 seconds with Radford only seven seconds back in sixth.
New Zealand won five medals at the meet, including two golds to Daniel Bell of Auckland and one to Wellingtonian Gareth Kean.
* New Zealand results from the Junior Pan Pacific swimming championships in Guam:
A finals
Men's 400m medley relay: New Zealand (Gareth Kean, Starn Simpson, Dean Bell, Cameron Burrows) 3min 42.07sec, 1; Australia 3:42.16, 2; United States 3:43.26, 3.
50m freestyle: Kento Ito (Japan) 22.90, 1; Tomaso D'Orsogna (Australia) 22.96, 2; Bell (NZ) 23.00 (NZ age record), 3.
200m individual medley: Mitchell Donaldson 2:04.59, 5.
50m freestyle: Ameka Gessler 26.41, 8.
200m breaststroke: Chloe Francis 2:37.22, 8.
800m freestyle: Dylan Dunlop-Barrett 8:16.64, 7; Shane Patience 8:17.20, 8.
10km open water swim: Ryan Feeley (USA) 1:53.37.65, 1; Rhys Mainstone (Australia) 1:53.38.20, 2; Kohei Yamada (Japan) 1:53.39.39, 3. Also: Kane Radford (NZ) 1:53.44.18, 6.
Women's medley relay: New Zealand 4:18, 5.
B finals
200m individual medley: Ellen Quike 2:19.92, 4; Samantha Lucie-Smith 2:25.10, 7; Elizabeth Brown 2:27.46, 8.
50m freestyle: Lee 27.82, 6.
1500m freestyle: Phoebe Williams 17:21.34, 3. NZPA
