It wasn’t the most attractive of evenings and the number of swimmers (91) was the lowest in 12 seasons.
Yet for those who were there it was a near-perfect evening. Not too much current, calm seas, no glare or sunstrike and far less argy-bargy at the start.
Hayden Squance is growing taller every day. He only has to lie down in the water and he has a body length on most of us. He used this to good advantage for the first 300m or so, heading south parallel to Rocks Rd, before Oxford Bayley picked up the pace.
Oxford Bayley (Photo: Pete Marshall)
Hayden tried the usual strategy of sticking on his feet, but Oxford was off, making a break which he held to the end, after a circuit of all the boats on the harbour including the pirate boat nestled in the lee of Haulashore Island.
Luke Kelly was also distanced, with the first three finishing at 30 second intervals and Abbey Smale (feature pic) a similar distance back in fourth wrapping up the win in the women’s section.
Emily Chadderton has the short series (almost) wrapped up, but she moved up to the long course to take second place ahead of fellow 13-year-old Eva Ellena and Christina Harris (who is more than four times that age – isn’t swimming wonderful?).Christina’s daughter Fran was the next woman home.
Thanks to Emily going long, Lilly Claridge moves to the top of the short series points table with her win in the short race ahead of Lucas Bell and Steve Bryant, who must have thought he was in for any easy night