It was a beautiful day on which to wrap up the season.
Swimmers in the 5k race were pushed down to the Boathouse by a huge incoming tide. After the first kilometre, Blenheim swimmer Chris Smithers had a 100m lead over Ben Marshall, with a similar gap back to a chase group of three.
Once swimmers reached the Boathouse, they turned left and headed out through The Cut to start a long leg back towards the sandbank by the beach.
Once the 5k field had passed the fishing jetty, swimmers in the short course of 2k began to get into the water. They were immediately clinging on to the jetty structure or the ladder as the massive tide pushed them up the harbour.
Their course was west, cutting below Haulashore Island to join the long course. As they set off, their course immediately turned into a banana-shaped curve, despite their best efforts to take a straight line.
Further discombobulation was to come.
On reaching the buoy by the sandbank, swimmers were to take a right-angled turn to a buoy by Rocks Rd. Another yellow buoy by the beach proved the undoing of several as, unable to see the correct buoy in the low sunlight, they headed straight for the beach. The mistake was compounded by a kayaker misdirecting some swimmers to the wrong buoy.
Two swimmers in the long course were affected. As expected, Chris Smithers powered home for a good win in the 5k, but Ben Marshall was misdirected. It wouldn’t have affected his result, but because he swam a different course he didn’t feature in the main set of results.
Kate Alexander was the other swimmer to take a wrong course. The probable winner in the women’s field, she was also taken out of the main results.
In the final set of results, Fraser Hill was credited with second place, ahead of four women, Christina Harris, Nia Linyard, Conor Tarrant and Jodie Lovell.
Next, in seventh place, was 74-year-old Ben Van Dyke, ahead of Jon Linyard, Rebecca Hollingsworth and Macy Cattell.
In the 2k field of 36, five went off course. Eve Sealy, Roger Matheson and Ara Wyatt were top prospects for this race and they took the top three spots in this repackaged set of results ahead of Sam Hopgood and Cathie Lindsey.
Taking this group out of the equation didn’t affect the declared winner, Hayden Lockie, who had the fastest time of all the 2k starters.
Appearing after him in the official 2k results were Jonathan Webb, Glenn Clyne, Charlotte Thynne, Nevin Price and Sean Trengrove.
Swimmers now have more than seven months to prepare for next season.