What an amazing day. When the first three men and women in the 3km race stood on the podium, five of them were from Nelson. In the men, Luke Kelly, Fergus Drummond and Alec Swan took the first three places overall, while Abbey Smale was the first woman home, taking eighth overall, one place ahead of Sierra Thomas, second woman overall.
Not only that, the weather was amazing and we grabbed a swag of medals all the way through the various distances.
At a preliminary count, we achieved 28 age group medals in the 3km race – eight gold, 15 silver and 5 bronze:
Gold: Derek Eaton (M75-79), Hamish Neill (M55-59), Terry Bone (M45-49), Matt Hansen (M40-44), Rebecca Hollingsworth (F30-34), Luke Kelly (M20-25), Abbey Smale (F15-19), Fergus Drummond (M15-19).
Silver: Ralph Hetzel (M75-79), Stuart Hebberd (M70-74), Ben Van Dyke (M65-69), Malcolm Anderson (M60-64), Janis Crampton (F60-64), Christina Harris (F55-59), Andrew Martin (M55-59), Kerry Mathieson (F50-54), Wendy Healey (F45-49), Matt Newberry (M40-44), Ruth Thomas (F35-39), Ben Marshall (M30-34), Hayden Squance (M20-24), Sierra Thomas (F15-19), Alec Swan (M15-19).
Bronze: Steve Clements (M60-64), Jude Vincent (F55-59), Flossie Van Dyke (F25-29), Caitlin Abbott (F20-24), Oxford Bayley (M15-19).
Added to that, we gained three gold medals in the non-wetsuit division: Kerry Mathieson F50-54, Rebecca Hollingsworth F30-34, Lisa Gant F45-49
In the 1km swim we gained eight gold medals: Isabella Thurlow F14-19, Brooke Swan F10-13, Kate Kempthorne F20-19, Stuart Hebberd M70-99, Ned Smith M60-69, Charlotte Thynne F30-39, Natalie Gallagher F40-49, Sale Matthews F50-59.
In the 500m swim, we gained at least two gold medals, but our poor old statistician didn’t recognise some of the younger names (if you can help, please email info@nelsontriclub.co.nz): Stuart Edens M50-59, Eileen Beattie F60-69.
There were plenty of good local results in the 100m, 200m and 300m too – again, it was too hard to pick out the local swimmers
Results – click here