SHANE HURNDELL Flaxmere College teacher Chris Swain got more than a few funny looks as he paraded around his school's athletics sports in a Spider Man suit last week. It was all part of his plan to "shed a few kilos" in the buildup to this week's national surf lifesaving championships inGisborne. "It's hot as and I'm sweating heaps," Swain (pictured right) said at the time. Yesterday Swain reaped the benefits of his "Spider Man" stint with four titles in the masters section on Day one of the three-day champs at Midway Beach. He won the surf race, ski race and board race titles in the 30-34 years age group and the ironman title in the 30-39 years age group. Swain was too busy coaching this morning and unable to talk about his feats to SportToday. However if his Westshore club athletes follow their coach's example they should go close to achieving their goal of a top three finish. Masters points don't count towards the top club points at the nationals. Westshore rivals were no doubt glad about that after watching "Spider Man's" feats yesterday. Ocean Beach Kiwi's Greg Larsen took out the 50-plus beach flags title despite competing against athletes seven years his junior. He also won the 55-59 years beach sprint title and spearheaded a composite team which won the beach relay in the same age group. His clubmate Ben Bennett won the ski race and ironman titles in the 55-59 years age group. Pacific's Russell Holt was second in both the board and surf races in the 40-44 years age group. Waimarama's Allister Hunter was second in both the surf race and beach sprint events in the 60-64 years age group. Like Swain, Larsen, turned his attention to coaching this morning and had high hopes for his club's beach sprint contingent. Of major interest for Hawke's Bay will be whether or not Westshore's Dan Moodie can repeat last year's under-19-open men's ironman double and the former of his clubmate and world ski race champion Nikki Cox. The nationals continue until Sunday.
