Swimming: 75 and still going strong

Pat Owens-Bohme, 75, swam from Bayswater to The Viaduct in one hour 17 minutes. Photo / Simon Watts

Pat Owens-Bohme brushes aside any congratulations offered at winning her division in Sunday's State Auckland Harbour Crossing.

"Of course I won, there was just me in the division. There are not many people silly enough to do this sort of thing at my age," she said with a laugh.

At 75 years young, there are not many people able to pull off the swim from Bayswater to The Viaduct, especially with a strong current running in the channel.

Owens-Bohme finished the swim in a creditable one hour 17 minutes, making her the winner of the female 75-79 section in a field of one.

Incredibly, the swim was no big deal for Owens-Bohme, who is now in her fifth season of competing in the State Ocean Swim Series.

She says she competes in the series simply because "she can".

"I could swim [when younger] but I was never a competitive swimmer. I actually started swimming when I was 58 and joined the Whangarei Masters Swimmers," she said.

The idea to start ocean swimming came from one of the masters swimmers, Maungakaramea's Lyn Milligan.

"Lyn started doing the ocean swim and she said to me 'you can do this Pat,' and I said I'd give it a go and we have both gone along ever since," she said.

Living at McLeod's Bay is a definite plus for training purposes and you will often see her out for hour-long training sessions. When the tide's out, Owen-Bohme has a 13m pool at her house to practise in.

Responding to the question how much training she does, she answers wryly "a lot".

Owens-Bohme and Milligan train together when they can.

"I come into town one day a week to do my shopping and we meet and swim together at the pools and, of course, she comes out to my place and we train in the sea," she said.

The water has been unseasonably cold but Owens-Bohme said it had not really affected her because a wetsuit was required for ocean swimming.

The pair plan to compete in all six of the New Zealand swims on the State Ocean Swim calendar, with the next event in Wellington on January 25.

Another Whangarei swimmer, Liz Calvert, was also a winner on Sunday, winning the women's 65-69 division.

Japan's Yasunari Hirai and Charlotte Webby of Taranaki have maximum points in the open division of the series after winning the men's and women's races respectively in Auckland. Hirai finished in 35 minutes 24s, just ahead of Australian George O'Brien. Both Hirai and Webby won the opening races in the Bay of Islands a fortnight ago.