Swimmming: Radford favoured for Taupo feature

Kane Radford. Photo / APN

Rotorua swimmer Kane Radford is the front-runner in the men's field for the Epic Taupo 10km swim as he makes a bid for the London Olympics.

Radford, who won the opening round of the State Ocean Series in Auckland, also won the famed Tiburon Mile in San Francisco last year for the second time.

The New Zealand team member for the 2011 world championships in Shanghai spent last month training at altitude in the United States. He is expected to lead the men's field as the current Australian 5km champion.

The other Kiwi contenders include Auckland's Phillip Ryan, the defending national champion and 2009 champion; Casey Glover (Queensland-based); and Stefan Talbot (Howick Pakuranga).

The Australian challengers include Trent Grimsey, a former world 25km silver medallist, and Australian junior champion Josh Richardson. Phillip Rush, Swimming New Zealand open water manager, said it was an important weekend for the open-water swimmers.

"Firstly, it's the national championship, which is a title I know they all want to have. Obviously, the big goal is to get two swimmers, hopefully, to the London Olympics. The first step is to place in the top two swimmers in Taupo to get through to the qualifier in Portugal.

"More than that, I will be looking for swims of real international quality. In that regard, it is great to have so many leading Australian swimmers come to compete. They will ensure the pace is of international standard and really test our swimmers."

All distances of the Epic Swim are likely to test the 425 recreational swimmers. "It is great to see the development of open-water swimming, both at a competitive level and recreational, and to see the numbers increase so significantly for the State Epic Swim," said Rush.

"Swimming is such a good activity for people to keep fit and active. So many of us have been brought up swimming in the open water and now a lot of people are enjoying the chance to take part in open-water swimming. There are regular open-water swimming events in all of the main centres now - so people should check out their local clubs for information."

Epic Swim

Saturday, January 14

Mini Epic 100m, 5-10-year-olds.
Mid Epic 1km open and age groups (10+).
Epic 5km open and age groups, (12+).
Minor Epic 500m, 9-16-year-olds.
NZ 10km open-water championships open and age groups (13+).
Epic 10km open and age groups (13+).
Epic 2.5km open and age groups (12+).

Sunday, 15 January

Masters 2.5km classic - age groups (25+).
NZ 5km open-water championships.
www.epicswim.co.nz.