Alena Kamper with her winner's certificate from last year. Photo/Warren Buckland
Something Alena Kamper can't be accused of in her quest to retain her open women's 2.5km Napier Ocean Swim today is a lack of training.
The Napier Aquahawks 17-year-old who won the Napier Port-sponsored event in her third attempt last year has been putting in the kilometres as she prepares for the New Zealand age group championships in Auckland in April. Nine training sessions each week in the pool, three of them for two hours and the rest for 90 minutes have become the norm.
"I would like to hope I could retain my title in what is expected to be perfect conditions but there are so many variables out in the ocean ... you never know," Kamper replied when quizzed on her chances of going back-to-back.
Last month the Phil Melhuish-coached Kamper finished as the fourth best Kiwi in the women's 5km race at the Lake Taupo-hosted New Zealand Open Water Swimming Championships in 1hr05m54.27s. That was her last taste of open water swimming.
"I was definitely happy with that. But since then pool training has been the priority," Kamper said.
Last year she recorded a time of 30m14s in the Napier event and is hoping for a similar time today.
"I really enjoy the open water but I'm more familiar in the pool," Kamper said.
She will adopt a similar approach to last year today starting with a big plate of porridge for breakfast. Kamper intends to stick to a steady pace from the start and stay ahead of the bunch as long as possible.
In Auckland she will tackle the 400m and 800m freestyle events as well as the 200m fly. In October Kamper will attend the short course nationals which are raced in a 25m pool. Kamper predicted her 15-year-old sister Edi and another training partner and fellow Aquahawk Sarah-Kate Birkett to provide her with her toughest competition. Birkett finished six seconds behind Kamper last year.
"You never know ... there could be others turn up who we don't know anything about."
Event director Trevor Adsett, who was delighted with the field of 250 starters for the eighth annual event, said another Aquahawk, Louisa Mason, also had the potential to push Kamper. At the other end of the experience scale Adsett predicted Hawke's Bay's Vicki Moffitt to win the women's masters 60plus 2.5km title.
"Vicki has been putting in some hard training off Hardinge Rd."
Adsett pointed out interest in the event has grown following the placing of several buoys off Hardinge Rd which people have been swimming out to.
"They've got a lot of confidence out of swimming out and around them and back to shore."
Last year's open men's winner, Central Hawke's Bay Swimming Club 16-year-old Bevan Jacobs, is confident of going back-to-back and improving on his winning time of 28m16s. Like Kamper he has left no stone unturned in his quest.
He also competed in Taupo last month and finished seventh overall in the open men's 10km race. At the Australia Open Water Champs Jacobs competed in two 16 years events and finished eighth in the 7.5km race and 10th in the 5km race.
Last year a superior sprint on the beach saw him pip Hawke's Bay triathlete Lachlan Cairns of Hastings. Jacobs said he has been working on his sprint just in case it comes down to that again.
He predicted Cairns and Kamper's brother Trent to push him again for the men's title. Jacobs also didn't discount Alena Kamper's chances of pushing him close for the overall title.
Like Kamper he is also training for the Auckland pool nationals where he is hoping to reach finals. He will also tackle the short course nationals.
Adsett added Napier Aquahawks Joe Avison's name to the list of open men's title contenders along with Jacobs, Cairns and Trent Kamper. Napier's Chris Young is the favourite for the men's masters 60plus 2.5km title.
A 2km standup paddle board race will be staged for the second time today. Other divisions are the 1km classic, the 300m dash and the 200m kids classic.