Boles and Graham claim Round the Mount Swim titles

Ari Graham was the first woman out of the water in the 2020 Round the Mount swim. Photo / George Novak

A 4km open water swim around Mount Maunganui is not for the faint of heart but on Sunday a pair of up-and-coming stars showed how it's done.

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Rotorua 19-year-old Davey Boles is no stranger to open water swimming titles, having excelled at events all over the country and abroad in recent years, and today he added the 2020 Round the Mount to an ever-growing list of accomplishments.

The first female out of the water was 20-year-old New Zealand triathlete Ari Graham, originally from Christchurch but now based in Tauranga for training.

"I missed this race last year but it's a well run event and props to the lifeguards because they always do a good job," Boles said.

"It's quite a different race and it was cool this year we were able to actually go around the Mount - some years because of the weather conditions you have to stay around Pilot Bay.

"The conditions were pretty crazy so it was quite cool, it was a big challenge today. Other than nationals this is the longest race I do, the rest are around 2km, but it was a good distance for me compared to the shorter ones because I could actually get in a rhythm."

Davey Boles added the 2020 Round the Mount title to his already impressive list of achievements. Photo / George Novak

Graham, racing in her first "home" event since moving to Tauranga two weeks ago, competed in triathlons all over the world in 2019 and the open water swim was the perfect training run leading up to her first big event of the year, the Gold Coast OTU Sprint Triathlon Oceania Cup at the end of February.

"I wasn't really focused on winning, I was more just excited to be doing an ocean swim because I haven't done one for a while'" Graham said.

"I was really happy with how I handled myself in the ocean, it's a lot harder [than swimming in a pool] just with the variability of the conditions."

She moved to Tauranga to train with a group of triathletes based there and said it was going well so far.

Rotorua's Davey Boles was all smiles as he exited the water in first place at the Round the Mount swim. Photo / George Novak

"I've just adopted Tauranga so I've just been trying to get in a routine. A lot of my training partners were leaving Christchurch so I thought I'd move up and have a bit of a change. For this year, I think I'm going to head to Europe and try to get some more World Cup racing under my belt - that's the plan for now.

"In the long run, I would love to go to the Olympics, maybe in 2024, but that's a while away so I'd just love to stay consistent in the sport at the moment and then hopefully be able to grow and develop as an athlete."