Swimming: Norfolk's Harbour Crossing is right on course

World-ranked North Shore swimmer Helen Norfolk, back after recent surgery, was the star turn in yesterday's Harbour Crossing Swim in Auckland. Norfolk was the leading female home in the 2.8km swim from Stanley Bay to the Viaduct Harbour in the second annual event that attracted 850 swimmers.

The Sydney and Athens Olympian was a remarkable seventh overall, only 2m 30s behind winner Moss Burmester.

It was a morale boost for Norfolk, who has battled a knee injury this year and recently underwent surgery to repair troublesome ligament damage. The individual medley specialist returned to training seven weeks ago and has only just been allowed to train for breaststroke.

"This is great. I am really happy," Norfolk said. "It was choppy out there and navigation was key. I managed to follow the leaders and was really pleased with how strong I felt. Considering it has been just a couple of months since my surgery, this shows things are on the right path."

Norfolk enjoyed a strong performance at the world championships in Montreal in July, despite battling an injured knee which has troubled her throughout the year. She finished with three top-10 performances, just missing the finals of both the 200m and 400m individual medley, where she finished ninth and 10th respectively, while finishing eighth in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

"The injury affected my breaststroke kick in particular. I really only had about two weeks of breaststroke training before the world championships because of the injury. While that was pretty frustrating, I was so pleased with my results. The surgery has gone well and this was a good test today. I am back in full training with breaststroke now and feeling no ill-effects."

Norfolk's world championship performances saw her ranked third in the Commonwealth over the 200m medley and second in the 400m. Now back to full health, and buoyed by her performance in the Harbour Crossing, she is looking forward to the Commonwealth Games trials in four weeks and featuring strongly in Melbourne in March.

Norfolk dominated the women's division, finishing two minutes clear of team-mate Melissa Ingram, a medallist at last year's world short course championships, with Sarah Gempton third.

Burmester held off clubmate Robert Voss by the narrowest of margins, clocking 33m 19s for the 2.8km journey in choppy conditions on the harbour, with young Auckland swimmer Karl Poole third. Defending champion and triathlete Brent Foster was fourth ahead of Olympian Dean Kent. It was also a boost for Burmester, the 200m butterfly specialist. "Brent Foster veered off to one side but I stayed straight because I was unsure if we would make it around the final buoy," Burmester said.

"Navigation plays a huge part in a swim like this. Robert and I managed to get it right today and I was only just able to hold him off."

The event attracted a number of leading triathletes, including Norfolk, Burmester, Voss, Kent and Ingram, 2004 world triathlon champion Bevan Docherty, world under-23 champion Andrea Hewitt and former world junior champion Terenzo Bozzone.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY