South Africa’s largest family beach Series, the Weekend Post Ocean Racing Series, kicked off Season 7 on Sunday morning in perfect weather conditions and a great entry of just over 350 participants. With 5 simultaneously running events taking place, it was the young 16 year old Victoria Park student, Wayne Jones, who stole the show with an outstanding victory in the Dis-Chem 2km ocean swim ahead of a large field of seasoned swimmers. Jones completed the 2 lap sea swim in a time of 28 minutes 32 seconds with Jonathan Roux in second (30’07) and Siegfried Lokotsch (32’03) in third place. In the 2km ladies race there was a surprise winner in Adri Louw who finished in a time of 33 minutes 49 seconds to take the top spot ahead of Liza Bright (34’56) and Tammy Geyer (35’04).
The most popular event on the morning continues to be the Dis-Chem 1km sea swim with 160 participants. Unbeaten last season, PE’s Chris van de Sande showed that his inclusion in the national swimming team and subsequent tours overseas during the winter months have put him in strong contention for this season. Van de Sande won the 1km swim in a time of exactly 15 minutes, some 23 seconds ahead of the older Jones Sibling, Jason, with Kurt van Staden in third place (16’40). Tarry Els won the ladies race from Jamie-Lee Engelke and Veruschka Jordaan.
The Weekend Post Ocean Racing Series, taking place on alternate Sunday mornings at Hobie Beach, features one of the most scenic 5km runs in the city with the Varsity College 5km Beach Run and 5km Beach Walk. Once again it was unbeaten Series Champion Marinus Johnson extending his undefeated Series record with a breakaway victory in 14 minutes 53 seconds. Johnson, who hasn’t been beaten since December 2006, was followed home by Frederik Jantjies and Vuyisekani Mgidi whilst Border athlete Kirsty Weir showed a clean pair of heels in the ladies race, winning in 19min 09 seconds to claim 4th place overall. Margie Saunders was second in the ladies race with Lee-anne Collyer in 3rd place. In the 5km walk it was Johan Ferreira and Sonja Smith who claimed the top spots from Michael Eales and Sweta Das with David Counihan and Lana Potter claiming the bronze medals in the respective gender categories.
The most exciting event on the morning certainly looked like the Kingfisher FM Kids 12 years and under 1km Beach Run/walk with 10 year old Brad Breetzke winning the event from Matthew Kingston and Christian Rosser. Rosser being the lucky winner of the Crowhurst and Bond optometrists R100 jackpot prize whilst all kids received a complimentary photograph with their medal from Sports Action Photography.
The Ocean Racing Series is a fun family beach series open to all with round 2 taking place on Sunday 23rd October at 9:00am.
Alan Straton
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