Noosa and TSS Aquatic Share Final Day Open Water Honours At Brighton Beach

Kareena Lee TT
TIME TO TRIAL: Tokyo-bound Australian marathon star Kareena Lee shows the style that will take her to her first Olympics in the 10km.PHOTO: Courtesy Swimming Australia (Delly Carr).

The Australia Day Long Weekend came to a close in Adelaide today with the cream of Australia’s open water swimmers and Olympic hopefuls putting the finishing touches to three spectacular days of racing at SA’s Brighton Beach.

Noosa’s individual brilliance at the Australian Open Water Swimming Championships continued with Olympic hopeful Nick Sloman and his training partner, Tokyo-bound Kareena Lee taking out the Open 5km Time Trial events.

WTT Kiah Melverton Kareenas Lee Maddie Gough

TIME TRIAL TOP THREE: Kiah Melverton (TSS Aquatic), Kareena Lee (Noosa), Maddie Gough (TSS Aquatic). Photo Courtesy: Swimming Australia (Delly Carr).

And the might of the Chris Nesbit-coached TSS Aquatic Club on the Gold Coast shone through when they finished first and third in the Mixed 4×1.25km Relay – an event many in the open water community believe could well be added to the Olympic program in Paris in 2024.

The TSS team of pool stars Kiah Melverton and Maddie Gough with the strength of Kai Edwards and Riley Clout were too strong for the Michael Sage-coached Kawana Waters and TSS “B”.

It also capped a successful weekend for TSS team who wrapped up the “Champion Club” title.For Lee and Sloman, it was the icing on a successful weekend, adding the 5km Time Trials to their 10km Australian open titles, secured on Saturday behind visiting internationals Ferry Weertman (NED) and Hayley Anderson (USA).

The John Rodgers-coached pair were not only presented with gold medals, but they also received individual cheques for $2,500 – a welcome incentive introduced by Swimming Australia.

The men kicked off the Time Trial proceedings at 7:30am, diving into a staggered start and it was 22-year-old Sloman (54:39.86) who showed all his open water prowess in the end to beat “Mr Consistency” Canadian Jon McKay (55:21.95) followed by a welcome return to form from Kawana Waters’ Bailey Armstrong (55:33.53) and Belgravia’s exciting teenge prospect Hayden Cotter (55:43.41).

Lee (56:33.31) had to go all out to ensure she could keep TSS Aquatic training partners and Dolphins rivals, yesterday’s 5km winner Gough (56:36.55) and Melverton (57:12.41) at bay.

The exciting Mixed 4×1.25km Open Relay saw TSS Aquatic A (Melverton, Gough, Kai Edwards, Riley Clout) take the bragging rights and the gold medal in 58:18.577, with Kawana Waters (Mackenzie Brazier, Matthew Robinson, Chloe Gubecka and Armstrong) second in 59:33.523 with TSS Aquatic B (Moesha Johnson, Bianca Crisp, Josh Parrish and James Otley-Doe in 1:00:20.463, third.

TEAM TSS

TEAM TSS TOPS IN OPEN WATER: Members of the TSS Team, crowned Australian Champion Open Water Club for 2020 and pictured here with Swimming Australia’s long serving Entries, Records and Results Specialist Liz Avery, who is retiring at the end of 2020. Photo Courtesy: Swimming Australia (Delly Carr).

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x