Dunedin swimmer holds off Burmester

Dunedin swimmer Bryn Murphy powered away from Olympic pool swimmer Moss Burmester to win the opening race of the New Zealand ocean swim series in Auckland today.

Murphy won the 2.8km swim from Bayswater on the North Shore to the Viaduct in downtown Auckland with Aucklander Phillip Ryan third.

He said the win over Burmester came as something of a surprise.

"I am pleased but surprised at the result, to be perfectly honest. My training at the moment really consists of keeping fit by swimming before work and not much more," said Murphy, the 2007 national 1500m champion

"I went out hard with the leading bunch, otherwise you can get stuck in a group and not progress quite so well, so yes that was the goal, to go out hard and see how things played out.

"Conditions were pretty good today so that helped but you never really know your position in a race like this and knowing Moss and the other guys are there somewhere always spurs you on to go faster."

New Plymouth's Charlotte Webby's win today suggests she has the potential to better last year's second place finish overall behind Australian Kate Brookes-Peterson.

"I am so pleased with that swim today - I really just took off and swam as quickly as I could the whole way," Webby said.

"I didn't see any of the other girls the entire swim, in fact I didn't even see the America's Cup boat at the halfway mark, I just had my head down and kept aiming at the Sky Tower."

Webby's winning margin was close, edging Melissa Ingram (Auckland) by just 13 seconds with rising teenage open water swimmer Alanah Jury (Auckland) a further 16 seconds back in third.

- NZPA