Event News

23 November 2011. Mission Bay - Auckland - New Zealand.

Winning a Stroke & Stride is no easy thing. Many tens of thousands of athletes have raced these events over the years and after 173 events we have a total of just 40 men that have won a race and even fewer women. This select group carefully guard the door of their exclusive champion’s club and are none too keen on extending their membership. So for one event to crown two brand new Stroke & Stride winners is a rarity indeed.

The afternoon of the second event in the summer’s 2XU Stroke & Stride Series was once again a windblown affair but fortunately the Mission Bay venue was sheltered from most of it. The swim course was even set to take full advantage of the conditions. If this were a sailboat race the course would have been described as all reaching and downwind legs. The men’s field were first underway and it was first time Stroke & Stride athlete Lawrence Hull who dropped the hammer on the guys as he went to the front and had opened up a 10 metre lead when he reached the shore clocking a smoking 8 minutes 49 seconds. Sam Franklin was the closest and the only other swimmer under 9 minutes as all the competitors revelled in swimming with the wind at their backs.

As the leading guys were sprinting into transition the female field started their 750 metre swim out and around the cans and back into the beach. Serial Stroke & Stride winner and current Series Champion Simone Ackermann lead them out in 9 minutes and 40 seconds with Rebecca Clarke and Elizabeth May breathing down her neck. This leading trio had opened up a nice gap, as the next swimmers didn’t strike the shore until 10 minutes had elapsed on the clock with Maddie Dillon recording 10 minutes and 3 seconds.

The flat and fast 4 kilometre run course headed basically east to the turn cone at St Heliers Bay and then retraced their route to the finish at Mission Bay. Therefore the westerly breeze was at everyone’s back for the first half and if we revert to the sailing analogy it was all about being close hauled and plenty of tacking for large periods of the return journey. Whether under sail or on foot this doesn’t make for the most pleasant of passages however it is often where the greatest of gains can be made.

Profiting most during this stretch of the race was Nick Berry. He burst free from the pack of swimmers he had for company during the swim, then ran up to and past the few runners that were ahead of him and extended his lead to run home for the victory. Last season his best result was a third placing, this season he has gone straight to the top of the class with his first ever Stroke & Stride win. Twelve seconds in arrears came defending Series Champion Michael Poole with another six seconds to Sam Franklin picking up the bronze. These two repeated their placings from the previous fortnight. Liam Scopes claimed 4th place and Mark Bowstead rounded out the top 5 men.

At the start of the run it was a three horse race for the women and looking very close to a repeat of the final event from last season with the same three athletes again being close throughout the swim and the decisive move happening out on the run course. However this time it was soon down to two athletes as they duelled their way up and down the waterfront. Back in March it was Simone Ackermann getting her nose in front but this time it was Elizabeth May dictating the terms as she accelerated and opened up the decisive break before they got back in sight of the finish. So Elizabeth May from Luxembourg returns to Auckland and the Stroke & Stride and wins her first ever race with a measured and polished display of swimming and running prowess. Simone Ackermann was forced back to the unaccustomed runner up position this time. Third place goes to Rebecca Clarke having her best ever start to a season and staying ahead of the talented Maddie Dillon and Elise Salt.

After two events it is not the usual dazzling results but the consistency of champion Simone Ackermann that rewards her with a handy 6 point lead in the Series Grand Prix. She will need to keep her guard up as presently tied in second are Rebecca Clarke and Maddie Dillon who both have an eye on that top position this season.

Defending Series Champion Michael Poole also has the lead in the Grand Prix with his own 34 points however his margin is even slimmer over Sam Franklin and Nick Berry. Right now everyone has six more events and four months of summer to sort out those crucial final points.

Stroke & Stride action resumes at the next event on Wednesday, December 7th.

Full results and Grand Prix points can be viewed at swimrun.org

From 2013 multisporters will have their chance of glory with the addition of a multisport option to be raced in alternate years of the Motatapu event.

Geoff Matthews, Director of Iconic Adventures, organisers’ of the Motatapu, hopes the new Motatapu R&R Sport multisport event will be a return to glory days for multisporters.

“Finishing the Motatapu R&R Sport Multisport event will possibly be the largest crowd that any multisporter has ever seen in New Zealand, the winner will get the accolades they deserve when crossing the finish line,” says Matthews.

Matthews says the inaugural Motatapu R&R Sport Multisport event will be held in March 2013 and be held once every two years, alternating each year with the R&R Sport Adventure Run.

“The multisport course will consist of a 15km kayak down the Matukituki River, a mountain bike through the Motatapu Valley on the same course as the Motatapu Speight’s Summit 47km Mountain Bike and then finish with the 15km Arrowtown.com Miners Trail Run,” Geoff Matthews says.

Local Queenstown multisport legend and co-owner of R&R Sport, Haydn Key, says multisporters have become thinner on the ground over recent years and he laments the passing of most of the classic multisport events.

“With the Motatapu having such great momentum and such a big event feel, it will be really fantastic to have a true multisport option at the event, Haydn says. “This will be a return to the classic one-day multisport format with the introduction of the kayak, mountain bike and run. It will be a fantastic course as well.”

Geoff Matthews, himself a former winner of the Southern Traverse and the Head to Head Multisport event, says there are a number of reasons that have lead to the demise of multisport participation and the number of multisport races in New Zealand but hopes the new Motatapu R&R Sport multisport event will reverse the trend.

“Over the past decade increased health and safety, as well as the high cost of accessing land and compliance costs, has made most events unsustainable,” Geoff Matthews says. “It is highly unlikely that a multisport event like this would be able to operate successfully as a stand-alone event, therefore incorporating it into the other Motatapu events held on the same day guarantees its survival,” he says.

Matthews also questions whether multisporters have in fact hung up their kayaks and gone onto other things because of the lack of atmosphere around multisport events. “While the scenery of the New Zealand countryside is spectacular, the atmosphere around multisport events often never quite matched it,” he says.

“It’s what I call the two cow finish line. I can distinctly remember finishing a multisport race in front of three people and a few cows in a paddock. This came only a few weeks after racing in front of 25,000 people at the Auckland Ironman. It’s extremely demoralising, and I hope the thought of finishing in front of the big crowd will spur a few people into dusting off their kayaks,” Geoff Matthews says.

The running of the inaugural R&R Sport Mutlisport event in 2013 will also mean that Adventure Runners who miss out on entering this year will have to wait until 2014 to race the R&R Adventure Run.

Other events to be held in conjunction with the Motatapu include; the Speight’s Summit 47km Mountain Bike, Icebreaker Off Road Marathon, Arrowtown.com Miners Trail 15km mountain run and the XTERRA UDC Finance Motatapu Triathlon.

9 November 2011. Mission Bay - Auckland - New Zealand.
Four seasons in one day doesn’t begin to describe spring in Auckland. In the space of an hour, even in the space of a single vista we were experiencing all sorts of weather action in the lead up to the opening race in the new season’s 2XU Stroke & Stride Series. While the wind boxed its way around various compass headings and low hanging clouds of wind and rain marched down the harbour we were feeling most fortunate to be getting ready to race in an unscathed Mission Bay. Then following as we slept off a fabulous opening event that ticked all the right boxes the outdoors was again being lashed by nasty squalls of that inclement stuff.

So in the relative shelter of Mission Bay the leading females were able to make short work of the 500 metre swim leg and just 6 and a half minutes after the start it was a leading pack of seven swimmers closing fast on the shore. Rebecca Clarke was first to touch the sand recording 6 minutes 34 seconds with last summer’s champ Simone Ackermann latched onto her toes and with a small blanket covering the other contenders at this stage of the race. Even with the minuscule swim leg this lead bunch had managed to prise open a 40 second lead over their pursuers and it would require a supreme effort on the run to peg them back.

Watching all this unfold was the large men’s field eagerly waiting for their start and once their hooter sounded they were soon sprinting around the buoys and closing on the beach. There appeared to be no decisive breaks with the men as the front swimmers were closely tracked by just about everyone. Cameron Todd won the swim recording 5 minutes 49 seconds with then the following notable times recorded: Sam Franklin 5 minutes 53 seconds, Ryan Sissons 5 minutes 59 seconds, Nick Berry 6 minutes 5 seconds, reigning Stroke and Stride champion Michael Poole 6 minutes 11 seconds, Sam Ward 6 minutes 30 seconds and Liam Scopes 6 minutes 46 seconds. Why these times were notable amongst the hundreds and hundreds of guys surrounding them would be revealed 16 minutes or so later.

Four years ago almost to the day a sixteen year old girl took part in her first ever Stroke & Stride and simply ran away from all her competition to record a magnificent and surprising victory. This was backed up by another win two months later however even more surprising is that four years would pass before she got to repeat those fine performances and again stand atop the podium. Sophie Corbidge has every reason to be delighted to have finally won her third Stroke & Stride rewarding all her perseverance and training through the years. Our Series Champion for the past three seasons Simone Ackermann has been all but unbeatable in this time however for this race she had to settle for second. Another on the comeback was third placed Maddie Dillon having her best race in a while and holding off the talented Rebecca Clarke and Emily Pearce.

The out and back 5 kilometre run course is actually dead flat never rising more than a metre or so above the sea level the road hugs as it winds it way out to St Heliers Bay and return. Many of the competitors didn’t seem to think so as their fresh legs aided by a tailwind accelerated them to the turn cone only to be then confronted by a pesky headwind holding up a tiring body for the return leg.

The men’s field developed into a battle of the heavyweight champions on this homeward leg as 2010 Stroke & Stride Series Champion Ryan Sissons was being chased all the way by our 2011 Champ Michael Poole. At the finish it was Ryan Sissons landing the decisive blow returning to win his first event in two years. Michael Poole was to be the only challenger out on the run course taking the silver. Then it was Sam Franklin holding on for a tightly contested third place just seconds ahead of Liam Scopes and Cameron Todd. Emphasising just how competitive this event was is that these first five men are members of that very select club each having a Stroke & Stride victory to their name.

Sophie Corbidge and Ryan Sissons currently lead reigning Series Champions Simone Ackermann and Michael Poole in the pivotal Series Grand Prix however there’s a long way, seven events and plenty of entertainment assured before the final event in March.

Full results are available at swimrun.org

The action resumes at the next event is on Wednesday, November 23rd

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Swim start time change - 9:30am start from Bondi Beach

3 weeks to go: The Banana Boat Bondi to Bronte is just over 3 weeks away and we hope your training is showing it's results. On the day, make sure you cover up and protect your skin with Banana Boat sunscreen 'Tested in the Australian sun'. There will be Banana Boat sunscreen available at Bondi and Bronte for your protection.

Fundraising: We would like to thank all of the supporters and swimmers who are currently raising money through this event. So far they have collectively raised $6,900 through our event Everyday Hero page. The Kids Cancer Project (Oncology Children's Foundation) is the Banana Boat Bondi to Bronte official charity and in partnership with them, if you raise $250 for The Kids Cancer Project, we'll refund your entry fee of $40 to say thanks for your fundraising. If you want to get started now (click here), you have up until 2 weeks after the event to raise the $250 so there's plenty of time left.

Special Prizes: Thanks to our supporting partner Speedo, we are offering the top fundraisers for The Kids Cancer Project the chance to win some money can't buy items, signed by some of Australia's most elite swimmers. Items up for grabs include a signed copy of Eamon Sullivan's cookbook 'Eamon's Kithchen', a signed copy of Geoff Huegill's 'Be Your Best' biography and an Australian swim cap signed by the 'Missile' James Magnussen.

Water Temp Safety: This year the water already seems to be warmer and hopefully it continues to maintain its temperature or raise a little more. Last year we had some unseasonably cold conditions and introduced the safety policy that if water temp is below 18 degrees, all categories are open to wetsuits. Again and moving forward for all future swims, we'll be maintaining this safety policy.

Gatorade Drink Station: Today it was just confirmed that we have Gatorade on board as our new drink supplier so when you arrive at Bronte, be sure to grab a drink. We'll have both water and Gatorade available and for all those swimmers who arrive early, make sure you leave some Gatorade for the others towards the back.

On the day: On the day if you happen to forget your goggles, we'll have a few spare sets of Futura Biofuse Speedo goggles at Bondi which you can purchase. Once you register for the event and collect your swim cap/timing chip, make sure you get all your belongings onto the transport bus so it's at Bronte when you arrive.

We'll be in contact before the event day to give you any last updates, so until then, keep up the swimming and get ready for a great summer of ocean swimming with the Sunday Telegraph Ocean Swim Series.