Radford, Jury Lead Strong Fields in NZ Open Water Swimming

Kiwi swim stars Alannah Jury and Kane Radford headline starters in this weekend’s New Zealand Open Water Swim Championships in Taupo.

The national 10km and 5km championships are being staged as part of the inaugural Epic Swim Festival which also includes the New Zealand Masters 2.5km Open Water title as well as a range of recreational swims from 100m to 300m for kids from five years up, along with 2km, 5km and 10km swims for age group and adult swimmers.
“It’s an exciting addition to Swimming New Zealand’s open water programme,” said Swimming New Zealand National Open Water Head Coach, Philip Rush.
“Lake Taupo is an iconic landmark in this country and a brilliant venue for this event. At the top end it will provide a stern test for our leading open water swimmers as we plan towards the world championships and Pan Pacific championships later in the year.
“This is the first step in the process that we hope will realise real success at the 2012 Olympics in London.”
Rush said he was delighted that all parts of swimming in this country have combined for this event.
“We have our best swimmers here who are world class. We have the top Masters swimmers, plus the keen recreational swimmers and most importantly we are catering for the swimmers of the future.
“This will grow into a major event in this country and that’s exciting.”
Already entries are up three-fold on recent years.
Rush is expecting close and competitive swimming but not world best times this weekend, in the championships which form part of New Zealand’s selection process to the major events later in the year
“Most of the swimmers have come out of their big training camps and are in heavy workload right now. Our focus for them will be on working on good race strategies and getting some good racing competition.”
Leading the way is Jury (North Shore), the 18 year old who finished 13th in the 10km at the FINA World Championships in Italy last year.
Jury was runner-up in both the 5km and 10km on a choppy Wellington Harbour in her national open water debut but has gone on to perform superbly in Rome and also won the New South Wales 5km and 10km titles last month.
While Jury may be too classy in the 10km, the major kiwi competition in the 5km race will come from Wellington’s Georgia Hind (Capital), who won the 5km national title last year and was third in the NSW 5km event, and Charlotte Webby (Bell Block) who was a close second in NSW.
There’s competition from across the Tasman from Australian age champions Jamie-Leigh Austin and Caitlin Zillman, both from Brisbane.
There’s plenty of interest in the men’s race with the return of Radford (Swim Rotorua) who has moved to the International Training Centre in Auckland after a year in the US College programme.
He will find plenty of competition from defending national champion in both distances, Auckland’s Philip Ryan (Waterhole), his older brother Daniel and Wellington’s Casey Glover (SwimZone) who was second behind Ryan in the NSW 10km event last month.
There will be interest in the inclusion of Dunedin’s Bryn Murphy (Waves), a talented distance swimmer in the pool, who is stepping up to open water after success in the Sovereign Ocean Swim series this summer, while Nathan Capp (Greerton) has also impressed.
The Australian competition will come from national age medallist Joshua Richardson (Qld), who was second in the 10km at NSW, and Josh Beard who won the 16 years honours in the same event in the third fastest time of the day.
The 10km New Zealand Championship starts at 11am on Saturday after the age and open events, with Sunday’s racing featuring the NZ Masters 2.5km swim at 9am and the New Zealand 5km swim at 10am.
Details: www.swimmingnz.org.nz