Bay of Plenty swimmer Kane Radford is hoping to fulfil his Olympic dream when he takes to the water at the New Zealand Open Water Championships this weekend.

The Rotorua born lad is chasing his fifth consecutive New Zealand 10km open water swimming title in Taupo this weekend.

Kane Radford.

Kane is hoping his Taupo swim will springboard his Olympic hopes by qualifying to swim in Portugal in June. It is the final Olympic qualifying event.

Swimmers who finish in the top five on Saturday and then in the top six at the upcoming Australian open water championships will be considered for the final selection race in Setubal, Portugal, where the first nine swimmers will be added to the Olympic field.

The 25-year-old got within sight of the last Olympics in London but missed out at the final qualifying e vent.

A veteran of four world championships – he finished 30th at last year's event in Kazam – he is yet to crack the Olympics with Rio 2016 his goal.

Radford's main competition is likely to come from Waikato's Troy Balvert, the experienced Philip Ryan (Waterhole) and Wellington's Liam Albery.

The women's 10km event will see a rematch between multi-national champion Charlotte Webby (Aquabladz, Taranaki) against defending champion Penny Hayes (St Peters, Waikato).

Hayes, who was a prominent triathete, upset Webby to win the title in 2015 and has focussed on marathon swimming for the past 12 months under coach Carl Gordon at St Peters Swimming.

Most of the elite swimmers in the 10km event on Saturday will fight out the 5km national title on Sunday.

Additional reporting Stuff.