Kelly, Dwyer share honours for season
The Port Nelson Sea Swims finished on a high note last night, with 178 swimmers enjoying conditions as perfect as they could be, with the longest swims of the season to celebrate.
Luke Kelly was already the winner in the best-of-12 points table from the 18 swims, but he made his position clear as he powered home to win by a minute from Hayden Squance and Matt Hansen.
With a cluster of yachts not far from the start line, Kelly found himself at a disadvantage as the race headed across to Haulashore Island from the start line at the Nelson Yacht Club.
The outgoing tide gave the field a boost as they rounded the mark by the island and headed back towards the Richardson St steps.
After that, things got a little tougher as the outgoing tide hindered swimmers in the long slog back to the yacht club.
It didn’t make any difference to Kelly, as he went into the lead before the island and cut out the 1700m swim in 19min 23sec, ahead of Squance (20.21) and twotime series winner Hansen (20.31).
Although Hansen had his name on the cup in 2009 and 2010, the 37-year-old is the first to admit that the highly trained teenagers of today are very hard to beat.
Nevertheless, Hansen was unbeaten in winning M30-39. Simon Kneebone fiished fourth last night in 21min 5sec.
After a good crack at the M40-49 crown, Kneebone came up short for the season in a closely contested series won by Terry Bone, who didn’t race last night.
Pip Dwyer has raised the bar this year, always finishing in the top echelon of male swimmers.
Last night was no exception, as she took fifth place in 21min 58sec, ahead of triathlete Britta Martin, 22min 33sec, Jude Vincent (22.35), Kerry Mathieson (22.41) and Christina Harris (22.51).
Dwyer wins the series prize as well as the honours in F16-19.
Martin has a perfect 12 wins to win F30-39, while Mathieson does the same in F40-49.
No age group has been more closely contested than F50-59. It took until last week for Harris to clock her tenth win of the summer, while Vincent reached eight victories in last night’s race, leaving Harris to take the spoils by the narrowest of margins.
Other women’s series winners were Georgie Trengrove (U16), Lauren Ching (F20-29) and Margaret Johnston (F60+).
In the men’s series, Denis Cooper (M50-59) and Ben Van Dyke (M60-69) have been unbeaten over the summer and win their respective age groups. Matai McGuinniety (U16) and Jody Keefe-Laing (M20-29) were also unchallenged to win the series in their respective age groups.
The newly formed M70+ group seemed that it should be the property of national champion Derek Eaton, but it wasn’t to be, as competition around the country mean that Eaton’s best of 12 became a best of nine – not enough to clinch the title.
That honour went to Ralph Hetzel, who took the series by a two-point margin from Tom Dunn.
In last night’s short swim over close to 600m, Harry Perkins stepped down from his normal appearance in the long course while his younger brother Charlie stepped up to the long race.
Harry won the short race last night in 11min 1sec, but it was Charlie who took honours for the series.
Pogo Mcauley (11.18) burgled second place ahead of Finella Gibbs (11.22) and Reuben Lile (11.47), Nige Burgess (12.15), Caitlyn Huhu (12.19) and Bryony Marriott (12.23).
In the final season points washup, Gibbs won the U16 series prize, while Ed Steenbergen and Marriott took the honours in the open section.
All that remains is next Thursday’s prizegiving and the final Clements Endurance Series race around Haulashore Island on Sunday, March 22.