Carl finally swims his way to glory
AFTER two attempts, Sydney athlete Carl Sorensen claimed his big win in the Magnetic Island to Townsville swim.
Filling the role of bridesmaid behind perennial winner Matt Pegg, who sat out this year, Sorensen swept home in tough conditions eight minutes clear of his nearest competitor to claim victory in a time of 1.47:56 on Sunday.
“Townsville Amateur Radio Club were on boats out on the water providing regular updates and right from the start, Carl established a good lead,” said Townsville Open Water Swimming Association president John Barrett.
After abandoning cage swimming in 2008 to open the competition to more competitors, the gruelling open water event drew its highest number of individual competitors, with teams of four and two also involved.
Townsville super teen Leonie King, 15, finished third in the female category in a time of 2.10:08 behind winner Brisbane’s Jess Evans (2.02:51).
In a coup for Townsville competitors, sister act Hayley and Maddison Andrejic, 13 and 11, finished second in the duo category in a time of 2.12:58 behind Wave Runners’ Kym Nuth and Declan Marchioni (2.09:05), while the Gardens crew of Cam Keith, Lachlan Bowels, Matt Beauchamp and Lillian Williams took out the teams category in 2.07:24.
In memory of boating and fishing club member Dick Wickenden, Townsville’s Julie Boxsell was awarded the yearly trophy in his honour.
In tough conditions, a few swimmers didn’t make the 3½ hour race cut-off.
“It was a tough slog this year and some of the back-end swimmers were affected by the back-end tide,” Barrett said.
“A few people were a bit cool coming out of the 21C water, but we had 22 more entries this year than last year and we were particularly pleased with the number of duos, which was also the most we’ve ever had.”