A beautiful night for a long-course swim of just over 1200m and a short swim of about 350m. It was overcast, but calm, with a slight outgoing tide.
It’s not often the course goes north, but that was the case tonight, with Terry Bone choosing to shadow Ben Marshall to the first turn, about 200m towards the wharf.
Christina Harris went for the right-hand side of the course, sticking close to shore to minimise the current.
After the turn, Terry took over on the longer slog to the dolphin. Mia Pugh established herself in third, leading the women’s field. Nia Linyard and Lilly Claridge settled into their routines, with Nia taking an edge.
Not too much changed on the leg back to the road, or on the final section north to the finish, except that Christina, followed by Ben Van Dyke, again moved across towards the road to take advantage of the quieter water, catching Lilly by the finish buoy. That wasn’t entirely successful, as Christina got tangled in the buoy rope, losing the ground she’d made up.
Up ahead, Jasper Sneddon continued to improve, the 16-year-old taking fourth from Jody Laing, with Nia next, ahead of Haydn Lockie and Jonathan Webb. Lilly and Christina rounded out the top ten.
Max Stanton and Kit Vining were next.
Behind them, 74-year-old world champion Ben Van Dyke performed his usual miracles, finishing 13th overall in the small field of 66, just ahead of Jon and Keshia Linyard.
Former event organiser Dick Bennison made a welcome return to finish second in the 70-79 age group.
In the short race, Phoebe Diamond made an early break, leading Roger Matheson by a couple of body lengths all the way.
Billie Maskell, Tony and Kyan Munnerly and Ara Wyatt were next to finish.
Only five races to go!
Here’s the points. (note the season results are based on each swimmer’s best 11 swims – column x)