Murphy And Webby Victorious At Sovereign Harbour Crossing

Murphy And Webby Victorious At Sovereign Harbour Crossing

23 November 2009, 9:40AM
Femme

The six event Sovereign New Zealand Ocean Swim Series is underway for another summer with the sixth swimming of the Harbour Crossing completed today, from Bayswater on the North Shore to the Viaduct in downtown Auckland.

1325 swimmers registered for the event that once again briefly stopped marine traffic as the field made their way across the Waitemata in the shadow of the Harbour Bridge.

The spoils left Auckland though with Bryn Murphy (Dunedin) and Charlotte Webby (New Plymouth) taking out the major honours and prize money for first across the line in the men’s and women’s elite categories respectively.

For Murphy, his win and victory over Olympic pool swimmer Moss Burmester came as something of a surprise.

“I am pleased but surprised at the result to be perfectly honest. My training at the moment really consists of keeping fit by swimming before work and not much more,” said the 2007 NZ 1500m freestyle champion

“I went out hard with the leading bunch, otherwise you can get stuck in a group and not progress quite so well, so yes that was the goal, to go out hard and see how things played out.

“Conditions were pretty good today so that helped but you never really know your position in a race like this and knowing Moss and the other guys are there somewhere always spurs you on to go faster.”

Murphy finished comfortably clear of Burmester (Auckland) with Phillip Ryan (Auckland) in third.

Charlotte Webby was the real improver last year finishing second overall behind Australian Kate Brookes-Peterson. Victory today was the perfect way to start another summer and suggest she can go one better at the end of the summer.

“I am so pleased with that swim today; I really just took off and swam as quickly as I could the whole way. I didn’t see any of the other girls the entire swim, in fact I didn’t even see the America’s Cup boat at the halfway mark, I just had my head down and kept aiming at the Sky Tower.

“This is a great start to the series and after finishing second overall last year gives me a real boost to win the first race. I’m entered for most of the remaining five races so we’ll see how things progress from here.”

Webby’s margin was a little closer, edging Melissa Ingram (Auckland) by just 13 seconds with rising teenage open water swimmer Alanah Jury (Auckland) a further 16 seconds back in third.

Another to feature in the race if not the leader board was double Olympic gold medalist Danyon Loader. The 1996 star has been ten years away from the water but enjoyed his return today, swimming amongst the public rather than the stars.

“It was good fun, for me it was just about completing the course – something I knew I could do given I am used to 10km training sessions but for me this was about getting back into an exercise regime and enjoying myself. I want to continue my involvement in this series so that was important to me, to not be hurting - that is when people question ‘why am I doing this’.

“To be in amongst nearly 1400 people is cool and I’m sure the same applies to them. It is not often anyone gets to swim in the same event as Moss Burmester and myself so these events are great as it brings these Olympic and Commonwealth Games medalists into the same race as the general public, it was brilliant.”

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