2016 FINALE A DAMP SQUID

10 year old Tiara Finnis from Morningside winning the ladies 400m swim for Round 5.

Whilst the rain and windy may have kept away the social family members, over 300 participants braved the conditions at Hobie Beach on Sunday morning to take part in the 5th round of the aQuellé Ocean Racing Series, the final race of 2016.

The choppy seas took it's toll on the swimmers making for a very testing swim on the morning but this did not seem to upset the pace of 19 year old Deshaan Pillay in the 3km swim. Pillay won the long distance swim in a time of 38min 26sec from fast improving open water swimming Cullen Biddulph with former national swimmer Kevin Richards placing 3rd on the morning. In the ladies 3km swim it was 17 year old St Francis Bay swimmer Amica De Jager winning in 40:54 from Hannah Haswell and Lara Truter. The 2km Ocean Swim saw unbeaten champion Daniel Jones finishing 1st in 27:16 from Jarryd Cooke and Michael Kingston whilst Kingston's wife, Liza, won the ladies race from De Jager's older siste, Chane, with Delwen Henderson in 3rd place. Today's 1km Ocean Swim was won by Cole Craig in a time of 13 minutes 40 seconds from Jamie Riddle and Barry Serfontein with Kirsten Marriott taking out the ladies 1km swim in 15:23 from Britney Brown and Rebecca Jade Newman. 

The 400m Ocean Swim is a new distance introduced this season into the Series and was won by Connor Craig in 9:05 from Tristan Van Rooyen and De Wet De Lange with Tiara Finnis winning the ladies 400m from Chelsea Main and Jenna Coetzee.

On the wet beach the 5km Beach Run was won by James Barnardt in 22:14 from Anathi Manto and Vuyiswa Mtimkulu with Lerryn Mew (21:25) winning the ladies run from Dawn Denysschen and Claire Reece whilst Grobbie Grobler (26:47) won the 5km Walk from Juan Slabbert and Marcelle Meyer with Belinda Niemand winning the ladies 5km walk from Taryn Ferreira and Milé Vermaak.

The medal winners in the various age groups of the Kids 1km Beach Run were Boys  6 and under: 1 Jamie Aukett; 2 Gustare Segard; 3 Matthew Els; Girls 6 and under: 1 Kayleigh Marais; and 2 Gabriella Reece; Boys 7 to  8: 1 Aiden Joubert; 2 Albert Segard; 3 Luqmaan Coetzee; Girls 7 to  8: 1 Tia Van Niekerk; 2 Hunter Dutton; 3 Jessi Whitebooi. Boys 9 to 10: 1 Aphiwe Ngesi; 2 Siyanda Mbotho; 3 Chad Brown; Girls 9 to 10: 1 Abbie Mitchell; 2 Amber Joubert; 3 Hannah Charles. Boys 11 to 12: 1 Francois Vosloo; 2 Jared Seddon; 3 Liam Casey; Girls 11 to 12: 1 Kerri-Lee Barnard; 2 Ilze Hattingh; 3 Monique Alloway.

The aQuellé Ocean Racing Series returns on the 8th January for round 6 with another 5 race days remaining for Season 12 which concludes on the 26th March 2017. Full results from Sunday's race are available on the Series website, www.oceanracingseries.com with Oracle Media pictures available on the Series facebook page.