Cole Classic

2km

February 2, 2003

Congratulations to Ian Spence winning both his category and the overall race. Ian has just re-joined Norths Aussi.
Also big congratulations to Kylie Elbourne, Scarlet Reid and Rose Saltman for winning their categories
and to Lily Mathews for getting 3rd in hers.

The following North Sydney swimmers took part in this ocean swim (out of the 2177 total swimmers who completed it). Please let me know if I missed anybody.

Name	Category	Time	Overall Placing	Category Place
Ian Spence	M35-39	21:53	1	1
David Lovelace	M25-29	24:31	39	4
Dan Mitchell	M25-29	25:00	67	7
Kylie Elbourne	F25-29	25:04	72	1
Lily Mathews	F20-24	26:00	107	3
Peter Gregory	M25-29	26:19	122	12
David Singh	M35-39	26:19	123	17
Scarlet Reid	F30-34	27:04	177	1
John Wynberg	M50-54	27:42	217	4
Louise Sung	F30-34	27:46	218	3
Lisa Parrington	F20-24	28:23	275	9
Rose Saltman	F50-54	28:31	298	1
Clare Payne	F25-29	28:39	319	10
Pat Waddingham	M35-39	28:55	347	36
Colin Hannah	M25-29	29:03	357	31
Ed Egan	M30-34	29:31	407	70
Ian Davidson	M40-44	30:01	465	43
Geoff Van Den Bos	M40-44	30:02	466	44
Tim Hammond	M30-34	30:21	511	98
John Kelly	M30-34	30:27	523	100
Wayne Evans	M30-34	31:54	730	131
Rosalind Elliott	F30-34	33:26	966	44
Grant Parr	M35-39	33:43	1020	146
Robert Hayter	M60-64	33:44	1025	10
Danny Sydney	M35-39	33:52	1050	150
Karin Ragel	F25-29	34:20	1118	42
Alejandra Morel	F25-29	35:07	1236	49
Claire Baker-Smith	F25-29	35:09	1241	50
Brendon Hyde	M55-59	43:33	2023	68

Teams

How was your swim?

    Well there was good news and bad news for us older swimmers at the Cole ( 50 plus that is )
    The bad news started with our warm up swim that took a few of us out to the White Home Turning Buoy. Here we stopped and looked at the line of the buoys and tried to get a landmark that could be easily seen with a quick look up under full steam. Pretty hard when you still haven't bought those optical corrective goggles that so often have been on the shopping list - maybe next year!!!!
    We were joined at the buoy by a small group who had swum out to the 1st big red turning buoy at the northern end of the beach. They were somewhat distracted and pretty distressed as they had swum straight into a patch of blue bottles that appeared to be gathering in ambush at that buoy.
    Oh boy!! Blue bottles!!! 
    Blue bottles and I are not the best of friends - in fact I'll admit I'm scared sh*tess of them, well not them exactly, its more the way they totally wrap themselves around you when you happen to swim into them and then sting the bejesus out of you. 
    Well maybe those guys were a bit unlucky - we hadn't seen any and there was nothing on the beach to suggest it would be a bad blue bottle day. Besides I've never been stung at Bondi - so we all consoled ourselves and swam back in to prep our selves for the start.
    The first person we see at the beach with a horror look in his eye is our fellow Badger Swim Squad member and soon to be new North Aussi Club member Ian Spence. 
    "Did you see the size of those bloody blue bottles at the first turning buoy" were Ian's frightening words
    Whoopseeee - maybe they are really there!!!! That is bad news.
    Well who knows, we still may not be allowed to swim - that's one of the new glaring insights into ageing these days or at least it was at the East's Roughwater Swim. It turned out however that us over 50's were allowed to have a go and the good news as it turned out was that as the second last group to head off on the 2,075 meter journey it meant there would of been a good 1,950 people swimming through the blue bottle patch before we got there - needless to say it was a sting free trip.
    On the bad news front, being the second last group put you slap bang into the 100 odd assorted recreational breastrokers making their way around the first turning mark. It is quite harrowing trying to pick up fast track through flashing karate kicking legs and feet.
Luckily, somehow I did pick the right track and managed to keep my mind on the task to record my best ever finish at a Cole - 4th place in my age group - just missing a treasured "China Plate"
    The transition from 50 meter pool flyer to ocean going vessel is almost complete - maybe next year ??
    Oh and as for our soon to be new member Ian Spence, he did get stung but also won the "Cole" in a time of 21.52.8

Cheers

David Singh says:

I had a really enjoyable time in the swim. There were 325 swimmers in my age group. At the start there were arms and legs everywhere. When I reached the first turning buoy there was a chop and a swell which lasted until the third buoy. The current was so strong and I and some other swimmers didnt look so we had to swim nearly backwards so we could keep the second buoy on our right. After the third buoy the water was relatively calm. You could always look up and see other swimmers infront of you. Its always a nice feeling on the way back into the beach as when you see look up and see the crowd and also see the sand on the bottom of the ocean. When you finish the race and stop puffing from the run up the beach you feel good for what you have just done.
Congratulations to Scarlet, Kylie and all the others who did so well.

Norths AUSSI : Ocean Swim Results : 2003 Cole Classic