Race 6 of the State Beach Series saw another big crowd take to the waters off Takapuna Beach Tuesday night. A high tide and a 10-15 knot norwester made for calm seas and enjoyable swimming and paddling conditions.
For the second time in the series the 1.5km was the distance in the swim event and it was the youngster Jackson Cropp who covered the 1.5km swim in a quickest time of 16mins 47secs, comfortably ahead of Sean Newcombe with Jake McPhee back in third place.
The women's race was another "humdinger"; it's turning into a real battle between Kirsty Wannan, a member of the NZ Surf Lifesaving team and Brenda Russell, last years overall winner as they battle out the top spot. It was Wannan's night as she crossed the line six seconds ahead of Russell with another 36" back to Nicole Rosewarne in third.
Nick Sutherland led the men's field home in the 5km beach run for the second consecutive week, 37 seconds ahead of James Rimmer while Tara La Grange blitzed the women's field, striding home nearly three minutes ahead of her nearest rival. La Grange has now made a clean sweep winning her sixth consecutive race. Jesse Eichmann ran in second ahead of Abby Middleton.
Steven Ferguson was back on the water after a week's break. He won the 5km Surf Ski Paddle by a comfortable margin from Mitchell Travis and Ben Fouhy as he continues to build towards qualifying for the 2012 Olympics. Dene Simpson paddled home first in the women's race.
And it's serious business among the Stand Up Paddlers in the 3km event. Jeremy Stephenson was the fastest on the night winning the race by just 6 seconds. The win could just push him ahead of current leader Troy Huston who pipped Troy McAsey for second place by just two seconds. Stacey Smith continued her good form to lead the women's event.
