A record 176 swimmers took part in the Five Bridges River Swim in Hamilton on  Sunday, April 11. The number smashed last year’s record turnout of 102 swimmers and was more than double the number who took part in 2008.

“It was way beyond what we were expecting,” river swim co-ordinator Eleanor Pinfold said after the prizegiving ceremony. Mrs Pinfold said the registration team at the start line ran out of bright pink caps for the competitors but fortunately had a few white caps for late entrants. The 6km Waikato River swim, from Hamilton Gardens to Ann Street Reserve, got under way five minutes late, because of delays in processing so many entrants on the day.

The race at the front turned into an absorbing battle between 19-year-old Hamilton twins Andrew and Jonathan Pullon. The pair, with identical strokes, swam arm and arm together right down the course, with Andrew slightly quicker out of the river at the finish line. His time was 50min 36sec, with his brother three seconds back. Third in the males’ race was last year’s winner, Jared Bowden, 24, of Auckland, in 52min 06sec.

Winner of the women’s race was Candra Hansen, 19, of Hamilton, in 53min 18sec. Second was Tracy Fobbester, 39, of Hamilton, in 53min 35sec, comfortably ahead of Rebecca Kemp, 26, of Auckland, in 55min 53sec. Full results are available here

Drought conditions meant the Waikato River was low and the current was weak, so swimmers recorded slower times than usual and had to put in greater efforts to reach the finish line. The weather was sunny with the water temperature 18degC at Environment Waikato’s Victoria Bridge monitoring site.

Among the finishers was 80-year-old Mount Maunganui identity Sid Salek, who was overjoyed to beat more than 30 younger competitors in the 6km event. Salek broke two national records at last month’s New Zealand Masters Swimming Championships, in Invercargill, and plans to go to the world champs in Sweden later this year.

Bud Calder, also aged 80, who took part in three of Hamilton’s early river swims as a teenager in the mid-1940s, handed out trophies to the winners.

Referring to the huge turnout, Mr Calder noted that only about 25 people took part in his day.