LAKE Boga threw up a challenge to competitors at this year’s Bank 2 Bank event, with strong winds driving choppy water on Sunday morning.
Now in its fourth year and with a growing field of competitors, the event attracted 60 swimmers for the 3.1km swim, up from 45 last year, and 70 runners, an increase of 15, for the 5km run/walk.
Winner of the swim event, 18-year-old Conor Hayes, had travelled from Melbourne to compete and said he was not expecting the waves.
“I’ve done other open water events, but this is my first time here and wow, I was not expecting the conditions,” he said.
“You can hardly call it a lake today, it’s almost an ocean.
“I thoroughly enjoyed it though and really liked that this event had a spotting support kayak.
“That was something that helped with direction, but it also felt like you had someone out there doing it with you.”
Each swimmer must have a spotter in the event for safety and Hayes had his father.
Hayes tumbled the junior record in his last year to qualify as a junior and took out overall winner of the event.
He clocked 42m:51s which also meant he fell just 30 seconds short of the overall swim record.
He was trialling a new wetsuit and was pleased with the results.
“The Great Ocean wetsuit really made a difference, I think,” he said.
“It is purpose built for this sort of swim and has built on plastic divots on the forearms, and it seemed to really help with my stroke.
“Although it wasn’t an overall record-breaking swim today, I was very pleased with the result given the winds.”
Riley Sterenberg was the first female across the line in a time of 56m29s also breaking the previous female record.
It was her first time competing in the event and she had travelled from Bendigo.
“I wasn’t expecting how choppy it was out there, and it was a challenge but I’m really happy with my time,” she said.
Swan Hill College teacher Liam Mulcahy said he was pleased with his result despite the gusty winds.
“It was great having the spotter and Bridget is an old friend from when we were in the Mordialloc Lifesaving Club,” he said.
“I moved up here three years ago to take a teaching position and I was glad she was able to be part of my support team.”
Bridget Cameron made the trip up to spot for Mulchay and said she had enjoyed being able to do the trip beside him instead of behind him as is usually the case when they swim together.
“The event has just been fantastic and I’m so pleased to be here to take part in it,” she said.
The 3.1km swim started on the east side of the lake on Lakeside Drive and took a direct route across to the west, finishing near the waterskiing club.
Coinciding with the swim start was the 5km run/ walk event with competitors travelling in the same direction on land.
Organiser Will Burns said the run had gained in popularity with 70 people taking part this year.
Swan Hill’s Luke Phelan took out first place honours with a record-breaking time of 18m23s, slashing 49 seconds off the old record.
Manangatang’s Emma Templeton was the first female across the line with a time of 22m2s.
“I enjoy the park runs and more fun run style events,” she said.
“This one was great, but the end was the hardest, catching a head wind and then having to do that last loop around to find the finish line.
“I was thinking it was never going to end.”
The final event of the day was the 200m buoy swim where junior competitors swam from bank, back to bank circling a buoy at the halfway mark.
That event was won by Lucy Beams.
Event organiser Arlie Atkinson said she was delighted with how the event continued to grow each year.
“It’s awesome that more people are getting involved and many are travelling to compete,” she said.
“This year our furthest traveller came from McKellar, which is near Canberra and seeing the numbers grow makes us want to continue to make the event bigger and better every year.”
The idea for the Bank 2 Bank event came from Arlie’s own competitive nature as a child, when she was would swim the width of Lake Boga beside her father.
The pair continued the crossing for several years before deciding to make it a community event.
This year it was Arlie who took family honours, just pipping her dad by 20 seconds.
Other family competitors included Ned Ryan who ran with his father Patrick.
“It was so awesome,” he said.
“It was hard but a lot of fun and dad and I can’t wait to do it again next year.”
Profits raised from the event will go back into the community and the running of next year’s event.
