Open water season has officially begun with Seacliff being the first beach to host a swim. Registration was at 8:30 with briefing at 9:45 to start the swim at 10:00. It was a brisky for being in the middle of December and feeling like August with temperature at 20.5 degrees with westerly winds of 28km/h. The water was a tad choppy with swells of 1.4m but felt like 2.5m when you're getting hit again and again every few strokes and coping some mouth full of water.
It was a great turnout from the UniSA Swimming Club with Andrew, Eli, Liam, and Kim representing the club and Samuel and his dad Radek joining in and will be representing the blue and green in 2022. Liam led the field from start to finish as he powered the 2 laps. We all entered into the 1600m race but after completing the swim we realised the course is a tad shorter than anticipated or Liam's 15:16.00 is 45 seconds slower the Sun Yang's 1500m pool world record of 14:31.02.
There's some fast masters open water swimmers including the great female butterflyer from Adelaide Masters, Stephanie Palmer White (Female 55-59yo) who swam the "1600m" course in 15:51.70 and came second to Liam. Andrew struggled to get out of bed in the morning following 2 nights of drinking at 2 Christmas parties but he battled through and finished the 2 lap race in a time of 21:07.70 followed closely by Eli in a time of 21:27.30.
Samuel came prepared and had a wetsuit on where he finished the race in 25:50.10. Samuel was stopped by some of the lifesavers to assist him with directions as he couldn't orientate himself at times and had also hit the shoreline several tine which would have impacted on his overall time. His dad Radek was closely behind Samuel in a time of 25:46.40. Kim kept himself warm after signing on the beach and headed back to his car. He finished his 2 lap race in 27:23.40.
Swimmers who attend and complete all open water swims in a season will be awarded a Masters Swimming Open Water Swim towel. Its a very expensive towel but one that took blood, sweat and tears to earn.
1600m (900m)
Samuel Sztolc
24:50.10
Eli Teo
21:27.30
Liam McHugh
15:16.00
Andrew Truong
21:07.70
Kim Le
27:23.40
Radek Sztolc
25:46.60
