Mann Rhys To The Occasion

In one of the most competitive and difficult ocean swims to win the overall title, Rhys Mainstone of Australia and Becca Mann of the USA proved themselves as young guns to look for during the 2016 Rio Olympics quadrennial.

Mainstone and Mann won the overall titles at the 43rd annual Waikiki Roughwater Swim on Oahu held today. The 2.4-mile race was broadcast live at TakeItLive.

On the men’s side, it was an exciting race as the top group consisted of a quartet of Australians (Ridge Grimsey, Codie Grimsey, Mainstone, and Michael Shiel), a German (Alexander Studinski), and a Canadian (Xavier Desharnais). Mainstone had set a very fast pace from the start, but the top pack had coalesced around the last turn buoy. After the last bouy, the 6 men all took separate lines as they stepped up the pace and took separate bets as to the best navigational choice.

Mann finished in the top 10, outswimming 3-time winner Alex Kostich and winning by one of the largest margins in the last 10 years on the women’s side.

Mann and the field of 896 (891 who finished) faced an oncoming current and quite windy conditions (15-25 mph), but the times were still fairly fast. The top 20 results:

1. Rhys Mainstone, 47:29
2. Alexander Studzinski, 47:48
3. Codie Grimsey, 48:06
4. Ridge Grimsey, 48:28
5. Michael Sheil, 48:37
6. Xavier Desharnais, 48:48
7. Eric Nilsson, 50:04
8. Kacy Johnson, 50:07
9. Jayson Hagi, 50:09
10. Becca Mann, 50:38
11. Alex Kostich, 50:48
12. John Dorr, 53:19
13. Steve Allnutt, 53:29
14. Jacob Urbano, 53:58
15. Alistair Maclean, 54:07
16. Luane Rowe, 54:14
17. Chris Yontez, 54:17
18. Kale Ai, 54:35
19. Jessica Bayliss, 54:35
20. John De Mestre, 54:36

Full results here.

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