Australian 2-time marathon swimming Olympian Ky Hurst won Saturday’s State Sand To Surf in Mount Maunganui. Hurst beat fellow Aussie Josh Richardson and Auckland’s Phillip Ryan in round five of the State New Zealand Ocean Swim Series.

Chalk up the victory to his navigational sense: Hurst took a different line than everyone else right from the start and it set him up nicely. “It meant I ended up having a nice little buffer, which allowed me to relax into a good rhythm through the middle stages.”

But Richardson made it exciting when the 19-year-old Queenslander caught Hurst at the halfway point of the 2.6 km race. “Josh is one of the best open water swimmers in the world and has a huge future. So it was inevitable that he was going to catch me. At the end I was hoping we’d both catch a wave and body surf in, but it wasn’t to be.”

Hurst may have wanted to body surf in mano-a-mano with Richardson, but his ocean knowledge was the difference. “We got to the last can and it was all on. We had to give it everything we had, I just happened to get a nice couple of swells towards the end. I love coming to New Zealand and doing these State ocean swims. It is one of the best run series in the world, and for me to be a part of it is an absolute joy. And at the end of the day if I can walk away with $20,000, it’ll certainly be icing on the cake.”

2013 State Sand To Surf Results:

1. Ky Hurst (Queensland) 29:35
2. Josh Richardson (Queensland) 29:40
3. Phillip Ryan (Auckland) 30:14
4. Casey Glover (Wellington) 30:37
5. Brent Foster (Auckland)30:38

Current overall standings (after five rounds) in the New Zealand Ocean Swim Series:

1. Kane Radford (Rotorua) 298.28
2. Phillip Ryan (Auckland) 296.86
3. Casey Glover (Wellington) 287.87
4. Ky Hurst (Queensland) 200.00
5. Codie Grimsey (Queensland) 197.89

Copyright © 2013 by Open Water Swimming