Ryan Napoleon won the 1.25km BHP Billiton Aquatic Super Series Open Water Challenge in a relatively comfortable margin over Ayrton Sweeney and Christopher Reid.

The 21-year-old from Brisbane, swims for St Peters Western in Queensland under coach Michael Bohl. His trajectory to the higher echelons of open water swimming in Australia is due to his commitment in training, all those days where the pool and gym are limited to his coach and his teammates. “Although waking up at 5 am will never get any easier, I secretly get a kick out of training till I vomit and waking up the next day in pain because I know I have pushed myself beyond my limits. Over the years I have learnt that if you want to exceed your expectations in the racing pool, you must also exceed them in the training pool.”

1. Ryan Napoleon 14:03.52
2. Ayrton Sweeney 14:32.41
3. Christopher Reid 14:40.18
4. Byron Doyle 15:00.86
5. Simon Leckie 15:01.84
6. Rene Warnes 15:08.56
7. Paul Blackbeard 15:11.86
8. David Locke 15:40.96
9. Thomas Wagstaff 15:41.96
10. Belinda Hocking 15:57.76

Copyright © 2012 by Open Water Source