Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Giving Back To New Zealand

Two-time New Zealand Olympic gold medalist and swimming legend Danyon Loader is heading back to the water and will compete in the six-part Sovereign New Zealand Ocean Swim Series beginning with the Harbour Crossing Auckland on November 21 and continuing through the New Zealand summer.


Danyon said he was excited about giving something back to the sport - albeit in the ocean this time rather than the pool. "The series is a fantastic way to regain a little fitness and help raise awareness of overall water safety issues. I have no illusions about competing with the elite swimmers, but I will be doing my best to get in great shape and not embarrass myself. More importantly though for me is the chance to encourage all New Zealanders to take their recreational swimming seriously, to learn to swim well enough to be safe at the beach during the summer. Parents especially owe it to their kids to be safe in the water."

The elite men's section of the $75,000 series will feature Australian Olympian Ky Hurst (hot off another Noosa title), professional marathon swimmer David Browne, former world 25K champion Brendan Capell, Commonwealth Games gold medalist Moss Burmester and two-time Ocean Swim Series champion Kane Radford (hot off an RCP Tiburon Mile victory).

In the women's division, defending Ocean Swim Series champion Kate Brookes-Peterson will face contenders such as last year's runner-up Charlotte Webby and world championship 10K swimmer Allanah Jury.

Photo above of Danyon at the Fiji Swims event.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

does anyone know whether the "$75000" is reffering to the series champion, overall prize purse, or competition setup fee?

Steven Munatones said...

The $75,000 is the total of all cash and prizes (at retail prices) to be distributed throughout the races (in New Zealand dollars).