Another perfect night, apart from the low tide making it awkward getting in and out. With Alec Swan, Oxford Bayley, Nic Hall and Abbey Smale off on a national long distance camp, the race was wide open. Last year’s series winner Luke Kelly was on the start line for the first time this summer and Hayden Squance is always right …
A dozen Nelson swimmers made the journey north for the 3.8km swim between Narrow Neck and Takapuna Beach. Abbey Smale and Oxford Bayley swam in a small group near the head of the field, with Oxford missing victory by just a narrow stretch of beach to place second, 20 seconds behind Brent Foster of Auckland. Abbey stuck with the pace, …
Here we go. Perfect conditions for a swim Tonight’s results Here’s a story Photos by Pete Marshall Points to date
SWIM CANCELLED While many swimmers would enjoy the experience of swimming in 30km/h winds, it was just too much for the support boats
A field of 88 started in the first race of three Clements Endurance Series – 85 in the long course over 2km and three in the 600m option. Alec Swan set the race record of 21.26 in perfect conditions last year. This time round, conditions weren’t as good, with quite a choppy patch in the middle. Nevertheless, Alec set out …
Woo hoo. It was such an exciting swim and a real test of local knowledge, awareness and having clean goggles. A stronger than expected current had swimmers spread all over the harbour. At the front, it didn’t matter. Brother and sister combo Alec and Brooke Swan won the long and short swims respectively, with Oxford Bayley and Abbey Smale taking …
Thursday November 19 Opening night is so exciting. At 5pm it was bleak – chilly wind and choppy seas, but an hour later it was near perfect. Warm too, with a balmy 18 degrees water temperature. Oxford Bayley celebrated his birthday (thanks mum) in style, holding off Hayden Squance by three seconds. Alec Swan was next, followed by Abbey Smale, …
Swimmers and triathletes will be saddened to hear of the recent death of Colin Wragg, aged 73, pictured just two summers ago. Colin and I were of a similar age, and had many fierce triathlon battles, with neither of us giving the other much leeway, but always enjoying the encounters.. He competed in triathlon world championships on the Gold Coast …
The Covid-19 lockdown has been just the time to write some profiles on swimmers – to help our Nelson swim community get to know each other. I’ll be trying to publish a profile each day, adding them to this page as we go – Peter Gibbs The profiles will also be available on Facebook at The Nelson Sea Swim Zone …
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 …