 Sophie Corbidge striding her way to victory last season(Photo: Darryl Carey; click to enlarge) |
The silver anniversary season of the Stroke & Stride Series will commence this week with the first event in the eight race series.
The 25th edition of the world's most popular swimrun series is held each fortnight at Auckland's Mission Bay through the summer months with events comprising a sea swim followed by a road run along Tamaki Drive. There is $10,000 prize money to be won by the top athletes through the season.
Last season it was the sensational twenty-one year old Sophie Corbidge making the Series her own with victory in every race she started. The men's championship was much more tightly contested and came down to the final race where the experience of the indomitable forty-something Brent Foster made the difference allowing him to extend his remarkable record at these events.
The 2013 New Zealand Swimrun Championships went to repeat offenders Cameron Todd from Taupo with three titles and a resurgent Samantha Warriner from Whangarei scoring her fifth Championship.
The Stroke & Stride has an Adults Only rating with the youngest competitors being 13 years of age, from there on the hard-fought age group competitions are contested by athletes right through to their 70's.
All the events are held at New Zealand's favourite beach and contested over a variety of distances with swims between 500 metre and 1000 metre while runs are between 3 kilometre and 5 kilometre.
The first event is scheduled for Thursday, November 14 with a 6.15pm start time. Then four months later the final will be held on Wednesday, March 12th and this event will double as the 2014 New Zealand Swimrun Championships.
2013/2014 Stroke & Stride Series Dates
#1 Thursday November 14 2013
#2 Thursday November 28 2013
#3 Thursday December 12 2013
#4 Wednesday January 15 2014
#5 Wednesday January 29 2014
#6 Wednesday February 12 2014
#7 Wednesday February 26 2014
#8 Wednesday March 12 2014
