Female
1   Marisa Pentecost     25m59s
2   Debbie Tanner        26 02
3   Heidi Alexander      26 13
4   Naomi Calder         27 14
5   Kirsty Whiting       27 26
6   Nicole Cope          27 28
7   Nicola de Lautour    27 47
8   Rebecca Nesbit       28 07
9   Leanne Johnston      28 14
10  Leanne Matchett      28 16
11  Jennifer Cooper      28 21
12  Katie Bennett        28 26
13  Hayley Swaving       28 35
14  Gayle Clark          28 41
15  Brooke Pattle        28 44

 Male
1 Brent Foster           22m 22s
2 Haydn Woolley          23 27
3 William Green          24 16
4 Rodney Gordon          24 22
5 Dylan Mordaunt         24 35
6 Steven Nicholls        25 09
7 James Elvery           25 10
8 Dean Jagusch           25 14
9 Dennis Wakefield       25 20
10 Jonathon Counsell     25 30
11 Kirk Trigance         25 36
12 Oliver Tompkins       25 42
13 Ken Hight             25 47
14 Tom Forch             25 50
15 Quentin Smith         25 53

Stroke & Stride Grand Prix
Points after Race #3
 
    Female             Points
1 Heidi Alexander        55
2 Marisa Pentecost       46
3 Nicole Cope            44
4 Debbie Tanner          43
5 Kirsty Whiting         34
6 Nicola de Lautour      28
7 Sue Clark              21
8 Naomi Calder           20
9 Leanne Johnston        15
10 Tracey Fromow         13
11T Gayle Clark          11
11T Leanne Matchett      11
13 Udi-Ann Delport        9
14T Sione Jongstra        8
14T Rebecca Nesbit        8
16T Shantelle Bliss       5
16T Jennifer Cooper       5
18T Katie Bennett         4
18T Brooke Pattle         4
20T Hayley Swaving        3
20T Cindy Taylor          3
22 Elizabeth Orchard      2 
23 Kelly O'Donnell        1
 
Male               
1 Brent Foster           60 
2 Rodney Gordon          45
3 William Green          43
4 Steven Nicholls        23
5 Dean Jagusch           21
6T Marty Birch           20
6T Stuart Blake          20
8 Oliver Tompkins        18
9 Haydn Woolley          17
10 Richard Harding       15
11T Paul Angland         13
11T Chris Williams       13
13T Clark Ellice         11
13T Ken Hight            11
13T Dylan Mordaunt       11
16T James Elvery         10
16T Dennis Wakefield     10
18 Jonathon Counsell      8
19 Simon Geach            7
20 Craig Tulloch          6
21 Kirk Trigance          5
22T Tom Forch             2
22T Lewis Prebble         2
24T Dave Chambers         1
24T Quentin Smith         1

PO Box 10122  Dominion Road  Auckland  New Zealand
email  stroke@stride.co.nz
Phone 64 9 8157107   Fax 64 9 8157117

With the Pohutukawa trees in blossom at St Heliers Bay it was time to unwrap the Christmas edition of this season's Stroke & Stride Series. To complete this perfect picture, Auckland had laid on a warm, fine day with just the gentlest of offshore breezes. Once again the deadly accurate 1000 metre swim was over a boxed course and the swimmers in the field were looking to gain maximum advantage over the more fleet of foot. The men's field were the first to hear the starter's horn and when it comes to open water swimming, Brent Foster and Haydn Woolley would have to rank among the best in the world. These two kept each other company at the head of the field until rounding the second buoy which was where Brent made his move and opened up a 10 second lead on the return leg to the beach. Thirty seconds down on our leading aquatic duo was a string of men lead by William Green with the ominous Rodney Gordon a further ninety seconds down entering the transition. Out on to the run it was once again all Brent Foster as he extended his lead over Haydn Woolley over the flat and fast 3 kilometres and secured a momentous three-peat to start the Series. Haydn may have been "blowing out the cobwebs" but this guy is always ready to race and there's no denying the talent of this athlete as he grabbed a comfortable second place. William Green couldn't mix it with the top two over the 1000 metre swim leg but once out onto the run he quickly sewed up third. The mix of distances at Race#3 would not be Rodney Gordon's favourite but he still did enough damage on the run to get up for fourth, just ahead of Dylan Mordaunt who was having his top finish of the season. Next home was Steven Nicholls just a whisker in front of James Elvery.

The women's field were started ten minutes after the men and for this event Commonwealth Games backstroke sensation, Nikki Tanner lead the field around the buoys. Just fifteen seconds behind Nikki was her younger sister Debbie and Marisa Pentecost, both past Series Champions and both hungry for their first victory for this season. A stream of hot swimmers including Kirsty Whiting and Naomi Calder followed them in and lurking not far behind were the ever dangerous, Heidi Alexander and Nicole Cope. The 3 kilometre run to the end of Kohimarama Beach and back can seem like quite a long way especially when you're giving it everything you've got and your opposition is matching strides with you every metre of the way. On this occasion the 3 kilometres was enough to separate Marisa Pentecost and Debbie Tanner but only by the smallest of margins and when they came back into view at St Heliers Bay, Marisa had squeezed a couple of metres ahead of Debbie. Marisa wasn't to be denied her win in the torturous, final sprint up the beach to the finish line with Debbie crossing just three seconds behind. For the first time this season Heidi Alexander didn't win the Stroke & Stride but she still secured a podium finish running through for third. Naomi Calder had her best race of the season and held out Kirsty Whiting for a fourth place finish who in turn just held out the fast finishing Nicole Cope.