New Zealand Will Not Send Open Water Qualifiers to Rio

Kane Radford during the 5km Open Water Race of the New Zealand Open Water Championships, Lake Taupo, New Zealand, Sunday 10 January 2016. Photo: Simon Watts/www.bwmedia.co.nz

Photo Courtesy: Simon Watts/www.bwmedia.co.nz/Swimming New Zealand

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Last weekend in Setúbal, Portugal, both the men and women had their final opportunities to qualify for the Rio Olympics 10K open water race, after the initial spots were granted at last summer’s World Championships in Kazan.

Charlotte Webby finished 31st in the women’s race. While she was outside the top 10, she earned Oceania’s continental berth since an Australian earned a direct qualification. Kane Radford finished 19th on Sunday, but qualified by the same circumstances.

However, Webby and Radford will not be allowed to compete in Rio. The New Zealand Olympic Committee required the athletes to prove that they could finish in the top 16, with hopes of reaching the top eight, in order to be allowed to enter the Olympic Games. Their performances last weekend were deemed insufficient to reach those standards.

In their official statement, Swimming New Zealand said,

“However the selectors were not satisfied that there was sufficient evidence that either of the swimmers is capable of achieving the published nomination criteria which is that an individual swimmer must be capable of achieving a top 16 placing at the Games with the potential to win an Olympic Diploma (top eight placing).

This is the over-arching criteria established by the New Zealand Olympic Committee for selection of all New Zealand athletes across all sports.”

Webby and Radford will have the opportunity to appeal this ruling.

New Zealand is not the only nation to have set its own more difficult standards for Olympic qualification. This spring, there was controversy surrounding the French Open Championships in which very few swimmers met that federation’s tougher than FINA A standard requirements.

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Rob Davis

7 years ago

25 men and women are slated to compete in the Rio Olympic OWS. Both Ms. Webby and Mr. Radford qualified to be in that elite ranking by the criteria set by FINA. As every OWS competitor and coach knows, many things can elevate a competitive swimmer to a higher placing…like choosing a better navigational line, or on that day simply having a swim of a lifetime.
It is a true shame that both Ms. Webby and Mr. Radford have been denied by their country’s selection committee to compete at Rio.
Perhaps these two outstanding athletes should take up citizenship in a different Oceania country, where I am quite certain they would be welcomed.