With apologies for the delay, here’s the results.
In the best conditions so far this season, Hayden Squance was put to perhaps his hardest test yet as 29-year-old Olympic triathlete Tony Dodds pushed hard all the way. Swimming stroke for stroke to the dolphin, the pair took turns to surge and test the other until Hayden opened up a sprint from the final buoy to win by a touch. Luke Kelly returned for the first time this season to take third, followed by Talya Harwood, the leading woman, Matai McGuinniety, Terry Bone, Fraser Neill (back after a season off) and Piper Riley.
Following Zara Aydon in the short swim were Hannah Martin, Skye Humphries Gemma Langley and Oxford Bayley.
101 swimmers in the long race over 900m and 39 swimmers in the short race over 420m – everyone finished.
Here’s some photos, by Jean Hodson.
(We could do with some backup volunteers to press the camera button, please let us know if you can help – it’s a simple job, either with our camera or your own)
Featured swimmer: Zara Aydon looked happy to win the short swim for the third time in four weeks. Zara is a 13-year-old swimmer from Nelson in her second year of sea swimming.
Nelson Mail story on Stuff – here it is.
Don’t forget the first swim in the Clements Windows and Doors Endurance Series on Sunday December 11. The First Splash is a 2km swim from Tahunanui Beach to the yacht club, with a short option of 600m from the Richardson St Steps. The event starts at 7.30am, so you’ll need to sign in from 6.45am.
If you’d like to do more sea swims with friendly company, but without the pressure of a race, check out www.adventureswims.co.nz