Nelson Harbour throws up a tricky one

You can never take for granted the conditions for swimming in Nelson Harbour.

Race 15 of the Rylock swim series was swum on a strong outgoing tide, with a slight wind from the north just sneaking into consideration.

The first leg, to the mid-harbour navigation marker, was tide assisted, but making the next two marker buoys was a bit fraught, with the current pushing swimmers sideways.

The final leg, into the teeth of the tide, was just a hard slog.

It didn’t seem so for series leader Terry Bone, who completed the 1200m course comfortably clear of Ben Marshall and Finn Bryant, who were separated by a second at the end.

Mia Pugh has been the dominant female swimmer this season. In her nine races this summer she’s clocked up nine wins. Sadly, she won’t take home the silverware at the end of the season. Her Nelson summer work placement has ended, so she’ll fall short of points in the best-of 11 series.

That honour seems likely to fall to Lilly Claridge for the third consecutive season. Lilly finished 11th overall to take second place in the women’s competition, nine seconds ahead of Nia Linyard, with a similar gap back to Christina Harris.

You have to feel for Roger Matheson. The 63-year-old took on the short course series this year, despite this being the province of young sprites, who can swim at high speed without seeming to try.

For the first half of the season, age seemed to be superior to youthful enthusiasm, although Ara Wyatt, 14, was a thorn in Roger’s side from the start.

More recently, 12-year-old Phoebe Diamond has been in devastating form and to add insult to injury, Billie Maskell, 14, has stepped down from the longer swims to further add to Roger’s woes.

In Thursday’s over about 750m, the three young teenagers started the only way they know - at top speed.

Roger was right behind the trio in the lightning dash with the tide to the first mark.

He clung on through the side current and then in the final slog, but at the finish it was Phoebe, Billie and Ara with just a couple of seconds between. Roger was about 20m behind in fourth.

The old boy still leads the season rankings by two points, but every placing will count in the remaining three races of the season.

Full results and details, nelsonseaswims.co.nz