Swimming: Double delight as Radford and Webb whip up storm on water

Kane Radford on his way to winning the 5km open water title. Photo / Simon Watts

Kane Radford and Charlotte Webby made it a double at the weekend, claiming honours in the 5km New Zealand Open Water Championships at Lake Taupo yesterday.

The pair backed up strong performances from Saturday when they both won the 10km event which also forms part of the Olympic qualifying stages.

It is the fifth consecutive year that Rotorua's Radford has held both New Zealand Open Water Championship titles.

"To be able to win it that many times in a row is something special," Radford said. "Now we will just see where it goes and maybe we can build from there as well.

"I just really wanted to go out from the start and see how I felt. I didn't feel the greatest so I just thought I'll sit here and bide my time until the last little bit."

Radford finished in 58 minutes followed by Phillip Ryan (Waterhole) in 58m 03s and Jackson Dawson (Waterhole) in 1h 00m 23s.

In the women's 5km, Webby (Aquabladz New Plymouth) put together a solid race to win in 1h 03m 32s ahead of Sammy Winward (Aquagym) in 1h 04m 50s and Stephanie Gillespie (Zenith) in 1h 04m 52s.

To be able to win it that many times in a row is something special.

Kane Radford

"It was a bit hard to come back from the 10km yesterday but I felt pretty strong so I'm happy with it," Webby said. "I just try and take each race as it comes and keep building on it so I'm hoping that this year will be a good year."

The New Zealand Championships formed part of the successful annual Epic Swim which attracted 650 swimmers including a significant number of internationals, competing in a range of open water swims from 100m for children to the Epic Epic 17.5km events.