Ocean Swim: Bay pair chase Australasia's best

Tauranga's Nathan Capp reaches Pilot Bay beach ahead of Rotorua's Kane Radford to clinch third place in Saturday's Sand to Surf race. Photo/Andrew Warner

It was a fitting end to a golden summer of ocean swimming and triathlon racing at Mount Maunganui's Pilot Bay over the weekend.

On Saturday, in perfectly calm conditions, the penultimate leg of the State New Zealand Ocean Swim Series was dominated by some of Australasia's best long-distance swimmers.

Perth's Rhys Mainstone cleared out to win the men's elite race by 59 seconds from Gold Coast-based George O'Brien.

But two of Bay of Plenty's best swimmers in Tauranga's Nathan Capp and Kane Radford kept the Aussies honest, and thrilled the huge crowd lining the shore, with a tense tussle.

Capp just got there by two seconds to claim third place and remains second in the overall standings behind Radford with one more race to come on Auckland's North Shore in April.

Former 5km world champion and Olympian Melissa Gorham, from the Gold Coast, proved a class above her rivals in the women's elite race as she surged to a 59 second win over New Plymouth's Charlotte Webby with Leah Cutting (Adelaide) third.

The Sand to Surf programme was transferred to Pilot Bay after tumultuous surf conditions made the original swim route around Moturiki Island and Rabbit Island too dangerous for the field of 1100 swimmers of varying abilities and ages.

Yesterday morning, the final triathlon of the summer attracted a bumper field in ideal conditions for the swim, bike and run legs around Mount Maunganui with the traditional start and finish at Pilot Bay.

Tauranga triathletes featured strongly in both the men's and women's races.

Sarah Backler outpaced her rivals around Mauau to win comfortably.

Andrew Lloyd, soon to leave for Germany, took third place in the men's race won by Rotorua-based Sam Osbourne.