A dozen Nelson swimmers made the journey north for the 3.8km swim between Narrow Neck and Takapuna Beach.
Abbey Smale and Oxford Bayley swam in a small group near the head of the field, with Oxford missing victory by just a narrow stretch of beach to place second, 20 seconds behind Brent Foster of Auckland.
Abbey stuck with the pace, finishing eighth overall and winning the women’s section by three minutes from Teresa Adam of Auckland.
Conditions were near perfect, with the outgoing tide and south-westerly wind helping the swimmers, although having a tendency to push competitors a little out to sea, wide of the navigation buoys.
Both Abbey and Oxford won their respective 15-19 age groups, while Christina Harris took gold in F55-59.
It’s many years since Derek Eaton had to take second place, but he had to be content with silver in M75-79, while three swimmers took bronze – Fraser Neill in M20-24 (10th overall), Hamish Neill in M55-59 and Dick Bennison in M55-59.
Here’s the full Nelson results (please let me know if any are missing – petergibbs96@gmail.com)