Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
25-year-old Chloë McCardel of Melbourne, Australia went toe-to-toe with 35-year-old Spanish marathon swimmer Jaime Caballero of San Sebastian all day long – alternating in the lead – to nip him by less than 10 meters at the end and win the 2010 Manhattan Island Marathon Swim.
McCardel follows the footsteps of several famous Aussies.
The victors up from Down Under who have captured the overall solo Manhattan Island crown include Shelley Taylor-Smith in 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1998, Susie Maroney in 1990 and 1994, Tammy van Wisse in 1997, Penny Palfrey in 2007 and John van Wisse in 2000, 2008 and 2009.
But McCardel’s win was not easy with Spain’s 35-year-old Caballero taking the lead on occasion and using his vast experiences to push the pace and surge into the lead throughout the long 28.5-mile circumnavigation around Manhattan Island.
“I swim to raise money for the ALA Association (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and this Association helped him so much. I understood how much an Association can do for one person.”
Using that motivation and sense of purpose, Caballero, a veteran of the English Channel (10:29 in 2007), Strait of Gibraltar (one-way 2:58 in 2005 and two-way 7:51 in 2008) and the 115 km Golfo Vizcaya in Spain, gave McCardel a run for her money until she took control towards the end.
McCardel finished behind the overall winner, the five-person team of Cuatros sinkos (shown above) that included 37-year-old John Acton of Boca Raton, Florida, 30-year-old Abby Brethauer of New York, 35-year-old John Humenik of New York, 27-year-old Christopher Monson of Seattle, Washington and 38-year-old Julie Sheldon of Summit, New Jersey. Caballero finished third overall with the Paramount relay fourth (including Gregory Baker of Scottsdale, Arizona, Nick Dutro and Gary Simon of Albuquerque, New Mexico and Jeremiah Kane of New York).
Other relays included Channel Gals in fifth overall (with Marcia Cleveland, Liz Fry, Elaine Howley, Marcella MacDonald, Erica Moffett, Margaret Peterson and Meryem Tangoren-Masood), Team Japan Challenge relay in 18th (with Jeremy Bleackley, Yujin Nomura, Taro Shirato, Noritoshi Tokumasu and Yuta Tsuboi) and Bad Synergy relay in 19th (with Margaret Bolster, Richard Born, Christopher DeSisto, Gregory Gomez and Elizabeth McDonald).
Follow the rest of the event at the NYC Swim Twitter with the final official results to be posted NYC Swim website.
Photos courtesy of Tom McGann of Swim Free. Additional photos by McGann are available here.
Final official solo results as reported by the NYC Swim:
1. Chloë McCardel, 25, Melbourne, Australia, 7:53:54
2. Jaime Caballero, 35, San Sebastian, Spain, 7:53:59
3. Jose Serra, 36, Guatemala, 8:07:05
4. Stephen Junk, 49, Perth, Australia, 8:08:19
5. Tobey-Anne Saracino, 34, Rye, New York, 8:10:41
6. Samantha Simon, 20, Janesville, Wisconsin, 8:10:54
7. Jen Schumacher (24), 24, Irvine, California, 8:11:05
8. Jeffrey Cleveland, 30, Los Angeles, California, 8:14:48
9. Lance Ogren, 39, New York, 8:16:17
10. Dougal Hunt, 30, Melbourne, Australia, 8:18:54
11. Kristian Rutford, 50, Lincoln, Nebraska, 8:21:15
12. Jim Bayles, 58, Newtown, Connecticut, 8:22:24
13. Craig Lenning, 31, Denver, Colorado, 8:24:28
14. Sakura Hingley, 28, London, United Kingdom, 8:24:33
15. Dave Barra, 45, High Falls, New York, 8:30:00
16. Jordan Waxman, 45, Rockleigh, New Jersey, 8:33:01
17. Julien Leonard, 32, Paris, France, 8:38:58
18. Kathrin Raymond, 31, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 8:44:32
19. Rob Kent, 45, Oakville, Canada, 8:45:00
20. David Strasburg, 44, Charlottesville, Virginia, 8:48:12
21. Andrew Page, 38, Perth, Australia, 8:55:19
22. Amanda Hunt, 41, Sydney, Australia, 8:59:46
23. Mo Siegel, 58, Piermont, New York, 9:03:44
24. Jaimie Monahan, 30, New York, 9:09:33
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