Race #71

With the Pohutukawa trees in blossom at St Heliers Bay it was time to unwrap the Christmas edition of this season’s Stroke & Stride Series. To complete this perfect picture, Auckland had laid on a warm, fine day with just the gentlest of offshore breezes. Once again the deadly accurate 1000 metre swim was over a boxed course and the swimmers in the field were looking to gain maximum advantage over the more fleet of foot. The men’s field were the first to hear the starter’s horn and when it comes to open water swimming, Brent Foster and Haydn Woolley would have to rank among the best in the world. These two kept each other company at the head of the field until rounding the second buoy which was where Brent made his move and opened up a 10 second lead on the return leg to the beach. Thirty seconds down on our leading aquatic duo was a string of men lead by William Green with the ominous Rodney Gordon a further ninety seconds down entering the transition. Out on to the run it was once again all Brent Foster as he extended his lead over Haydn Woolley over the flat and fast 3 kilometres and secured a momentous three-peat to start the Series.

Haydn may have been “blowing out the cobwebs” but this guy is always ready to race and there’s no denying the talent of this athlete as he grabbed a comfortable second place. Will Green couldn’t mix it with the top two over the 1000 metre swim leg but once out onto the run he quickly sewed up third. The mix of distances at Race#3 would not be Rodney Gordon’s favourite but he still did enough damage on the run to get up for fourth, just ahead of Dylan Mordaunt who was having his top finish of the season. Next home was Steven Nicholls just a whisker in front of James Elvery.

The women’s field were started ten minutes after the men and for this event Commonwealth Games backstroke sensation, Nikki Tanner lead the field around the buoys. Just fifteen seconds behind Nikki was her younger sister Debbie and Marisa Pentecost, both past Series Champions and both hungry for their first victory for this season. A stream of hot swimmers including Kirsty Whiting and Naomi Calder followed them in and lurking not far behind were the ever dangerous, Heidi Alexander and Nicole Cope. The 3 kilometre run to the end of Kohimarama Beach and back can seem like quite a long way especially when you’re giving it everything you’ve got and your opposition is matching strides with you every metre of the way. On this occasion the 3 kilometres was enough to separate Marisa Pentecost and Debbie Tanner but only by the smallest of margins and when they came back into view at St Heliers Bay, Marisa had squeezed a couple of metres ahead of Debbie. Marisa wasn’t to be denied her win in the torturous, final sprint up the beach to the finish line with Debbie crossing just three seconds behind. For the first time this season Heidi Alexander didn’t win the Stroke & Stride but she still secured a podium finish running through for third. Naomi Calder had her best race of the season and held out Kirsty Whiting for a fourth place finish who in turn just held out the fast finishing Nicole Cope.