Pictured, Emily Chadderton
It’s been a busy weekend for Nelson swimmers, with 14 taking on 2km, 5km or 10km in the Ruby swims in Wanaka on Saturday and 17 swimming 3.3km or 2km in Wellington on Sunday in the Interislander Swim the Lighthouse.
Eight swimmers took on the 10km event in Wanaka, with Jude Vincent the quickest in a touch under three hours. It was a good day for the family, with Chris Vincent the best of the three who took on the 5km race, finishing a few seconds under 1 hour and 20 minutes – a great time.
Especially good results from Doug Robinson in the 10km and Sandra McGregor in the 5km, who both swam without wetsuits.
In the 2km, Hayden Squance had to compete against two former winners of Nelson’s swim series, Thomas Heaton and Luke Kelly.
Check out all the Wanaka times for Nelson swimmers, click here
Just getting to Wellington was an achievement, with gale force winds on Saturday causing ferries to stop in their tracks and a good number from Auckland and points north not making it at all.
We gathered up any former Nelson swimmers we saw and made a lot of noise as the medals were given out. Austen Dean was first to cross the line, taking fifth overall for a silver in M25-29. Jack Thornton was a few places back, narrowly missing a medal in the same age group.
Mark Oliver and Angus Perham were next, taking gold and silver in M60-64, while Rebecca Hollingsworth, swimming without a wetsuit, won F30-34. Father and daughter Ben and Flossie van Dyke sauntered up the beach hand in hand to take gold in M70-74 and silver in F30-34 respectively.
Karen Oliver joined husband Mark on the 60-64 podium, scoring silver in the women’s division.
Raphael Borborema loves bling and the gold medal in M35-39 will look great in his trophy cabinet.
Derek Eaton was unchallenged to take gold in M80-84, coming agonisingly close to cracking the hour and finishing 108th of 295 swimmers. Julia Cree was third in F55-59, also swimming without a wetsuit.
The last say in the 3.3km race was had by Cathie Lindsey, who took bronze in F65-69.
But that wasn’t all – Emily Chadderton came within a second of winning the 2km race from 108 swimmers, but took the gold medal for first overall woman, as well as another for winning her age group – F14-19.
Here’s all the Wellington results, click here
Here’s some photos, by Peter Gibbs and Kay Budd-Fletcher, click here