Weekend Highlights January 23, 2019

First held in 1987, the Portsea Swim Classic is now one of Victoria’s largest and most iconic swims.  Portsea is a popular resort town located approximately 90km from the Melbourne CBD and is home to the pristine Point Nepean National Park.  In addition to the classic 1.5 km Portsea Swim Classic, there is also a 2.5km Portsea Swim Classic Gold long course.  The 1500m “point-to-point” course starts close to the iconic Portsea Pier and takes you through the pristine waters of Weeroona Bay before heading west around Police Point, along the stunning foreshore of Point Nepean and finishing at Jarman Oval (better known as the “Polo Ground”) at the historic Quarantine Station in Point Nepean National Park#

Well done to our enthusiastic crew for taking part in such a fun event!

Apologies for the omission!  We had two more lovely ladies also headed down to Lorne last Saturday to take part in this iconic event.  Well done to Janine (22:04)and Naomi (24:50) for joining in all the fun!

The Lorne Pier to Pub is an annual, 1.2-km open water swimming race held in January at Lorne. It began in 1981, when a member of the Lorne Surf Lifesaving Club, the Late Paul Lacey, had the idea to have a “fun” swim from the Lorne Pier through Louttit Bay and finish by body-surfing the waves onto the Lorne beach. The race is completed on average in 22 minutes, but the quickest race time is 10 minutes, 30 seconds.  The race attracts up to 4,000 competitors, and in 1998, it entered the Guinness Book of Records, with 3071 swimmers, making it the world’s largest open water swim.  The race is organised by the Lorne Surf Life Saving Club with major partner [GMHBA Health Insurance], and supported by the Rotary Club of Highton.*

The Queens Head Hotel Seven Mile Beach Triathlon incorporates the Armstrong’s Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd state series race 3, doubling as the Triathlon Tasmania Inc. state Sprint champs, tripling  as Triathlon Australia national qualification race, quadruple as a Triathlon South club points race….. WOW there’s a lot going on!  Triathlon South are hosting this event at the seaside location of Seven Mile Beach, in the Clarence Municipality, which is adjacent to the Hobart Airport and approximately 15 minutes’ drive to the City of Hobart. The success of last year’s race at this venue has cemented this unique event in our summer calendar and what better way to enjoy this beautiful part of Tassie.^

We had Michael Grey head down to take on this unique course, as well as TA Family-Friend Jo Grey (no relation that we know of!).  Well done you two!  It’s great travelling to races, experiencing something different and stepping outside your comfort zones.  We hear there may also be a race report on the way, so stay tuned!

# text from http://worldseriesswims.com.au/portsea-swim-classic

* text from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pier_to_Pub

^ text from https://www.triathlonsouth.com/enter-events/#1524049003642-35283dcd-d5da