Celebrations continued after the Cowboys took down the Broncos on Saturday night with local paddlers gathering on Sunday morning to tackle their own challenge – a scenic paddle just off The Strand.
Once again, the weather was prime with the first lap having tamed winds – favourable for the less experienced. As competitors hit their second lap, the wind began to pick up giving our Long Course athletes a great opportunity to hit those runners; however this also meant a headwind for those heading out to the furthest buoy.
Long Course
As our daredevils launched to take on the 20km four-lap course, the fight for those extra sprint points took place. Coming near the end of our series (there’s one race to go), every point counts for our top leaders. Congratulations to the top three sprinters:
1. Ian Wright (took control gaining an extra three points)
2. Matthew Lindsay (took hold of his first sprint points)
3. Charlie Wilkie (once again took his place in the top three, moving into first place for the sprint leader board)
Top male long course competitors
Spectators were able to watch all the action from the beach and jetty, witnessing the final stretch until the finish line. Our Long Course athletes definitely showed us their all with the top three male long course competitors being:
1. Ian Wright (01:35:48)
2. Gordon Wing (01:37:51)
3. Dave Symington (01:38:27)
Following the race, Ian Wright said: “It was a good day – down wind was not as good as it could have been, was building, but [there was a] short swell. It was a bit of a zigzag on the way in to get some rest, but I was very happy with my paddle as I wanted to do it below 70% of my max heart rate.”
Congratulations to the top 10 Long Coursers who finished 20km within two hours:
Ian Wright – 01:35:48
Gordon Wing – 01:37:51
Dave Symington – 01:38:27
Brad Skinner – 01:40:27
Adam Smith – 01:40:50
Charlie Wilkie – 01:41:04
Tony O’Connor – 01:43:33
Matthew Lindsay – 01:44:06
John Entriken – 01:47:33
Herbert Kuskopf – 01:48:26
Short Course
Given the opportunity to paddle with the experts, our short course paddlers showed great determination and all finished despite the rise in wind conditions.
Top male short course competitors
A great finish by our top three males with the young Jaime Symington securing first place once again:
1. Jaime Symington (00:57:33)
2. Brendan Lulham (01:02:08)
3. Clayton Linning (01:02:55)
Top female short course competitors
The ladies gave the men a tough challenge with our top three females either beating or close to our top males:
1. Maureen Oconnor (01:00:13)
2. Ally Lawler (01:02:58)
3. Rachael Symington (01:04:44)
SUP-ers
We had a few SUPs on board on Sunday completing a 5km one-lap course. Good job to Chris Neden finishing first place (00:38:02), followed closely by Mark McPherson (00:40:28) who usually paddles in an outrigger. A big effort by Carolyn Ginzburg (00:32:50) being the only female SUP on Sunday and – despite completing only some of the course – it’s great to see her tackling the downwind section of the course.
For leader board and results click here.
Don’t miss the final race of the series – Race 5: Survival of Saunders: November 15. For more details see the Events calendar.
