World Champion Lines up in State Paihia Crossing

The 2009 world champion Melissa Gorman takes on New Zealand champion Cara Baker in a star showdown in the second round of the State New Zealand Ocean Swim Series in the Bay of Islands this weekend.

Gorman, who won the Australian ocean water title this year, will compete in New Zealand for the first time in the 3.3km State Paihia Classic.

It will renew the battle between Gorman and Baker who have been the two dominant open water swimmers in either side of the Tasman in recent years. The Australian, who won her national open water title for the past five years, edged the Gold Coast-based New Zealander to runner-up in 2010 and this year. Only six seconds separated the pair in 2010 in Victoria.

Gorman, 25, has already qualified for next year’s Olympic Games and is using the series to prepare for London.

“For me this year the State Ocean Swim races will play a pretty big part in my preparations for London, said Gorman.

“My focus is primarily on training over the next six months, so these swims will provide the perfect opportunity for me to get in some good race practice without interfering too much with my training schedule.

“There is no substitute for race practice, so whilst I'm not racing over the Olympic 10km distance, I'll still be able to fine tune my open water race skills. It’s also quite easy to fly over to New Zealand to race but still keep up my training regime.”

Gorman won the 5km title at the world championships in Rome in 2010, third in the 10km the same year and fourth in Shanghai this year where she qualified for London.
The Paihia event is the first of three races in New Zealand this summer for the super-talented Australian.

“Probably one of the biggest benefits about already having qualified is the fact that I can just focus on getting in a good solid block of training, and focus my taper primarily towards the Olympic Games rather than any other meets along the way.

“I am really looking forward to coming to New Zealand to race and see a bit of the country.”

First round winner Baker is still to qualify for London, and is using the series to prepare initially for the State New Zealand championships next month, and hopefully the final Olympic qualifying event in Portugal next year.

In the absence of first round winner Kane Radford, who is training in the USA, the men’s race will be open with national junior champion Stefan Talbot (Pakuranga) a likely favourite from Andrew Pullon and top triathletes Graham O’Grady and Michael Poole.

However the men will need to be on their game or they face being beaten the Gorman and Baker which would be the first time the females have taken the overall honours in a State NZ Ocean Series event.

The 3.3km swim from Russell to Paihia starts at 7.25am with the winner expected to take under 40 minutes. It will be followed by a range of other swims from 200m State OceanKids, 300, Give It A Go and 1000m Step It Up distances.