Seventeeen-year-old athlete Maddie Dillon has her work cut out looking for a result in the summer swim-run season kicking off this week.
Defending series champion Simone Ackermann of Whangarei is going for her three-peat in the 2XU Stroke & Stride. Ackermann, 20, is vastly experienced at Stroke & Stride having hardly
missed a race through her teenage years and finishing top overall female in 2009 and 2010.
Dillon, from Campbells Bay is tipped as one of the young up-and-coming challengers to watch this season.
Taupo's super talented Cameron Todd won his three starts last season and since then has celebrated his eighteenth birthday so is expected to be even more dominant in this summer's series.
The 2XU Stroke & Stride Series is contested over eight events commencing on Wednesday November 3 and concluding with the New Zealand swimrun Championship event on March 16, next year.
All the events in the after work sports event start at 6pm. The now world famous Stroke & Stride swimrun events were established in 1989 with events held at popular Auckland inner-city beaches Mission Bay and St Heliers Bay with the formula now being copied in cities around the globe.
Challengers for our two young favourites is likely from well performed athletes from previous Stroke & Stride season's including: the aforementioned Maddie Dillon, as well as Lizzie Orchard, Elise Salt, Amelia Watkinson, Rebecca Clarke, Sophie Corbidge, Cameron Burstall, Cooper Rand, Hamish Uden, Michael Poole and the three Sams, that is Sam Franklin, Sam Morreau and Sam Ward.
For news and results at the official Stroke & Stride website, www.swimrun.org
Calendar:
2010/2011 2XU Stroke & Stride Series
Race #1 Wednesday November 3 2010 Mission Bay
Race #2 Wednesday November 17 2010 Mission Bay
Race #3 Wednesday December 1 2010 St Heliers Bay
Race #4 Wednesday January 19 2011 St Heliers Bay
Race #5 Wednesday February 2 2011 St Heliers Bay
Race #6 Wednesday February 16 2011 St Heliers Bay
Race #7 Wednesday March 2 2011 Mission Bay
Race #8 Wednesday March 16 2011 Mission Bay
