Despite conceding the recent State New Zealand Ocean Swim series to the Australians, New Zealand's best open water swimmers are philosophical and realise that they still have much to look forward to in 2013.
Australia's double Olympians Ky Hurst and Melissa Gorman proved too classy, with each winning three races in the six race series and claiming the overall winners prize of $20,000 each, the richest prize in the history of New Zealand swimming. Kane Radford, who finished second behind Hurst said he was making no excuses and realised he still has a lot of work to do. He views the just-completed season as a rebuilding year and a chance to get re-motivated after failing to qualify for last year's Olympic Games in London.
Similarly, Cara Baker, who is New Zealand women's number one, finished second behind Melissa Gorman and is in a similar mind-set after the series. She also failed to qualify for the Olympic Games but feels she performed well thanks to a solid performance in the last race, the State King of the Bays. Cara knows she is fit from swimming the ocean swim series and feels she really went from strength to strength and learnt from her mistakes each race.
The FINA World Championships in Barcelona in July is the event looming for both Baker and Radford as being the most crucial for their futures. Both swimmers qualified in superb style at January's New Zealand Open Water Championships, both winning the 5km and 10km races on Lake Taupo. Two other New Zealanders, Phillip Ryan and Emma Robinson also qualified. Radford, in particular, is very keen to make an impression and he is aiming to be at the peak of his form. "It is the pinnacle event for me this year", he said. "Hopefully I can have a massive hit out there to increase my world ranking and get some more experience heading into Rio 2016".
As for Cara, she admits she also has some very hard work ahead of her to prepare for what will be a busy week in Barcelona. Along with Radford and Ryan, she will also swim in a 5km teams race, which will be a first for New Zealand. So, between now and July, these swimmers will be training, training, training, readying themselves for what will be the biggest test in their careers. As Baker observed, "Open water is all about tactics, being smart and preparing yourself for a girl fight out in the water. It's all going to come down to the last 1km sprint".
