Statement from Swimming New Zealand on Rio Olympic Marathon Swim

Swimming New Zealand selectors will consider the cases of open water swimmers Kane Radford and Charlotte Webby for nomination to the New Zealand Olympic Committee for the Rio Olympics.

The New Zealand Open Water Champions finished 19^th and 31^st respectively at the FINA Marathon Swimming Olympic final qualifying event in Portugal at the weekend.

There are 25 places available for the men’s and women’s fields for Rio, based on one swimmer per country. The top 10 finishers at last year’s World Championships qualified directly.

A further 10 places were available, based on one per country of nations not already qualified, at the 10km races in Setubal at the weekend.

There were also five invitation places available to the next highest placed swimmer of nations not already qualified from each of the five Continental Regions of Europe, Africa, North America, Asia and Oceania.

With Australia already qualified, New Zealand was offered a place as the next highest placed nation from Oceania – as Kane and Charlotte did not qualify directly as one of the top 10 finishers.

The selection policy of Swimming New Zealand and the New Zealand Olympic Committee criteria is that a swimmer needs to show evidence of an ability to finish in the top 16, with a potential for a top eight placing in Rio.

If Swimming New Zealand selectors are able to determine that Kane and Charlotte meet the over-riding criteria, they will then nominate with supporting evidence to the New Zealand Olympic Committee selectors by 17 June.