Georgina Bryant won back to back 3km titles at the Bridge to Bridge Swim on Saturday.
Georgina Bryant won back to back 3km titles at the Bridge to Bridge Swim on Saturday.
It was a double for Georgina and a victory for Georgia at the Whanganui Multisport & Triathlon Club's Bridge to Bridge Swim today.
About 35 people entered the two course event – 24 doing the traditional 3.2km swim from Aramoho Whanganui Rowing Club down stream to the Union Boat Club,while 11 competitors entered the shorter 1km swim starting further along.
While the Whanganui River tide was in their favour it was also very strong, as the marker buoys alongside the jetty at UBC were nearly being pulled under water.
Swimmers who had taken the middle of the river as their lane needed to come towards the shore quickly before the finishing point or else the current would take them past it, requiring a considerable effort to make their way back over to helping hands.
The 3km course competitors wait their turn for the traffic to clear on the Whanganui River on Saturday. The kayakers were their support craft, following the swimmers as they went.
After a delay, the 3.2km competitors hit the water at around 2.24pm, and just under 27 minutes later, it was Nga Tawa Diocesan School triathlete Georgina Bryant who swept around the corner first.
Bryant, the defending champion from 2017, completed the swim in 27m 32.07s, just over 42 seconds clear of runnerup Erika Toleman, who competed in a wetsuit.
It was a stronger women's field of both students and veterans in the race, as they occupied around six of the Top 7 placings.
Bryant, who in October raced at the triathlon world championships in Australia, is currently preparing for the national school championships, being held in New Plymouth at the end of this month.
"It was good and it was a really strong current, so that was fun," she said.
The teenager had powered out to a quick start that Toleman and the other chasing bunch had to follow.
"I was trying to swim the middle of the river, that's where the current is strongest," Bryant said.
"So I didn't see many people."
Most of the field had completed the swim by 3pm, aside from a couple of game older veteran competitors.
The 1km course was mostly contested by students, and Whanganui Collegiate's Georgia Abraham proved the winner in 11m 29.29s, coming to the shoreline first amongst a group of three.
The leading eight all finished within around 90 seconds to two minutes of each other, followed in by a couple of veteran swimmers.
The Bridge to Bridge was not held last year due to dangerous river conditions.
