Rotorua’s Kane Radford and Auckland’s Cara Baker edged to victory in the men’s and women’s classes respectively at today’s Wellington Classic 2.8km ocean swimming championships today.

Radford, 20, had to work hard for his win over newly-crowned national 5km open water champion, Bryn Murphy, of Invercargill, with just four seconds separating the two swimmers.

Baker continued her impressive start to the year adding the Wellington title to her 5km and 10km national titles that she won earlier in the month.

Taranaki’s Charlotte Webby held on for second place finishing just three seconds behind Baker with Wellington’s Georgia Hind taking third.

“My plan today was to really take it out hard, to have the other guys swim to the pace I set, it worked I think and I’m really stoked to take another win in the series,” Radford said.

Wellington’s Ben Campbell-Macdonald and Casey Glover had to settle for third and fifth respectively with young Auckland swimmer, Stefan Talbot, taking fourth.

Baker was pleased to hold onto her impressive unbeaten record this year.

“I just went out as hard as I could and tried to hold onto the guys’ toes.

“Near the end, I saw a female swim cap right on my feet and just had to work as hard as I could to keep her back.”

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Today’s race was the third of six New Zealand ocean swim series. The next round is at Christchurch on February 26.

Results

Elite male, 2.8km: Kane Radford (Rotorua) 30min 20sec 1, Bryn Murphy (Dunedin) 30:25 2, Ben Campbell-Macdonald (Wellington) 31:20 3, Stefan Talbot (Auckland) 31:41 4, Casey Glover (Wellington) 31::45 5.

Elite female, 2.8km: Cara Baker (Auckland) 31:51 1, Charlotte Webby (Taranaki) 31:54 2, Georgia Hind (Wellington) 33:49 3, Brenda Russell (Auckland) 33:39 4, Nicole Rosewarne (Auckland) 35:48 5.

Copyright © 2011 by Open Water Source