Radford, Webby earn Olympic open water qualifying showdown

Open water swimmers Kane Radford and Charlotte Webby have earned the opportunity to compete in the final qualifying event in the 10km marathon swim for the Rio Olympics.

The New Zealand Open Water champions finished in ninth and eighth placings respectively at the Australian Open Water Championships in Mooloolaba today.

Radford was fourth fastest and Webby fifth fastest among Australian and New Zealand swimmers. Provisionally this is inside the selection criteria of a top-six finish among Australasian swimmers, to earn a start in the final trial in Portugal in June.

Radford was also within 30 seconds of the winner, which was an additional selection criterion.

The top-10 finishers from last year’s world championships have already qualified for Rio, with a further nine spots available at the final qualifier at Setubal on June 11-12, along with one from the host nation and one from each of the five continental regions.

Radford produced an outstanding performance to clock 1:59.46 for the 10km race, only 19 seconds behind winner Jordan Wilimovski (USA), the current world champion.

The men’s race attracted a stellar field including Wilimovski who won from Britain’s Jack Burnell, who was fifth at the world championships, and leading Australian Jarrod Poort.

The pace was on from the start with Radford remaining in touch until the final loop, although he finished only 11 seconds off the podium.

Auckland’s Phillip Ryan was 13^th overall in 2:00.02 which was seventh in the Australasian ranks. He finished 30 seconds behind the leading Australian, with his potential inclusion for the final qualifying event subject to approval by the New Zealand selectors.

The other Kiwi in the men’s field, Waikato’s Troy Balvert, finished 19^th overall in 2:04.34.

While Webby qualified for Portugal in the women, it was painfully close for Waikato’s Penny Hayes who was 10^th overall and seventh Australasian, missing out on the qualifying opportunity by one place. She finished just four seconds behind the ninth placed Samantha Watts from Australia, who was the sixth placed Australasian swimmer.

Australian Chelsea Gubecka won the women’s race in 2:04.29 from compatriot Kareena Lee (2:06:08) and Japan’s Yumi Kida (2:06.12).

Webby was eighth in 2:08.53, Hayes 10^th in 2:14.47, while Bridget Maher was 20^th in 2:27.31.

Rio Olympic