The official rankings for the Banana Boat Ocean Swim Series are out. In the end, the rankings were formulated using each swimmer’s best two swims (rather than the three that would have been the case had all swims been held). Abbey Smale (pictured) was the comfortable winner of the overall title, displacing year’s winner Sierra Thomas, who placed third in the women’s field. Christina Harris showed her consistency and longevity, finishing ninth overall, as well as comfortably winning the F55-59 age group.
In the men’s competition, Luke Kelly cruelly lost out to Auckland’s Sebastien Priscott. Both swimmers won two races, gaining each of them 200 point totals, but in their only head-to-head Sebastian came out on top, giving him the edge. Luke had the consolation of easily winning the M20-24 age group. Terry Bone was ultra-consistent, finishing fifth overall in the men’s field, as well as wining the M45-49 age group title. Hamish Neill was seventh in the overall field, as well as placing third in the ultra-competitive M55-59 age group.
The other Nelson swimmer to win an age group title was Derek Eaton (M75-79). Derek has won his age group in the series every year for more than a decade.
Many other Nelson swimmers placed in the top ten of their age group. Here’s the full list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V0mwkOX8nIdyS-bWaZxMoFmY6ycah1DEnevGa2s2DSM/edit?usp=sharing
Over the next few weeks, we’ll profile many of these swimmers. Do you know who they are, what they look like, what their stories are?
For the rules on competition points and rankings: https://oceanswim.co.nz/series-competition/
For the full Banana Boat rankings: click here
