GISBORNE’S national 10-kilometre open swim champion Matt Scott held off a strong challenge from Rotorua’s David Boles to win the Legend of the Lake race at Rotorua’s Blue Lake at the weekend.
Scott, now based in Auckland, was competing in the 15-to-19-year age group. He was first out of thefield of 674 competitors, including 358 women, in a time of 40 minutes 28 seconds for the 3.5km race. Boles was second in 40:40, followed by Jackson Dawson (41:53).
Scott, who won the Surf to Sand 2.6km race at Mt Maunganui in November and the Harbour Crossing 2.7km race in Auckland in December, has won all three races he has entered in the New Zealand Ocean Swim Series.
He led from start to finish in Rotorua but had Boles on his hip the whole race.
“I even changed course on the final leg to try to shake him off,” said Scott, who was 19th in the Australian open water championships. “It’s hard to drop someone off, especially swimming in a wetsuit, but I thought I’d take a bit of a wider loop and it worked out.”
The Legend of the Lake was the fourth round of the Ocean Swim series.
“I couldn’t have asked for any better conditions,” Scott said. “Winning all three races wasn’t a specific target when the series began but I’m happy with that. I was using these as swimming practice for the longer 10km stuff — the Aussie and New Zealand open water nationals.
“The series races are to keep doing a bit of swimming that’s not in the pool.”
