Swimmer Kane Radford is slowly erasing his demons following a clean sweep of races at the Swimming NZ Open Water Championships in Taupo last weekend

After missing out on selection for last year's Olympic Games, the 22-year-old from Rotorua claimed both the 10km and 5km races to book himself a place in the New Zealand squad for the FINA World Championships in Barcelona, from July 19 – August 4.

Rotorua swimmer Kane Radford (middle) won both the 5km and 10km open water races at Lake Taupo last weekend.

Kane says he is happy with his results as it ticks off another step in planning for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

'Yeah definitely. I did what I had to do. It was always about going down and qualifying for world champs [Barcelona].”

With $5000 up for grabs on Saturday in the sports 10km feature event, Kane held off Auckland's Phillip Ryan in a fast finish with Troy Balvert from Cambridge in third, and Greerton's Nathan Capp fourth.

In a fierce opening 2.5km, the first four swimmers broke away from the rest of the field to open up a sizeable advantage before Kane and Phillip battled it out during the final 5km only to be separated by a couple of meters after a sprint finish.

Kane says the plan was never for such a fast start, but after running into trouble with his goggles at the start he had no other choice and it made for interesting racing.

'You know everything goes through your head at that stage. It all comes down to tactics. I had a little bit left, but it's so hard as you don't know much they have left either.”

Backing up on the Sunday, Kane won the 5km swim once again ahead of Phillip and Isaac Foote from Wellington in third.

'It's pretty hard. As with many of the guys in the race [10km] they all backed up. It all comes down to the mental game. But now it gives me something big to target and now I can target cementing my place on the world stage.”

Swimming NZ youth age and open water manager Phillip Rush say he is pleased with the standard of competition for both days of racing and says Kane swam extremely well.

'I think Kane wanted to win both days and he needed to for his self-confidence after missing out on the Olympics last year.

'He kept his head, he didn't do anything silly. It was good for him and it sets him up for Barcelona and for the future.”