No Storm Warnings for this Hurricane man!
May 7, 2005 - For a Hurricane it sure was calm. This year's Hurricane man open water swim did not live up to it's name. It couldn't have been more perfect conditions, flat, fast, cool, and a favorable current. The only damage reported was to the old records.
In all 38 records were blown away. The most damage done was in the Female 75-79 age division with Nancy Durstein SMASHING the old 2.4 mile record previously held by Peggy Hugues in 2000 by over 20 minutes! The old record was 1:40.12 ... Nancy's time was 1:19.59.
The oldest standing record, in the Men's 18-24 USMS 2.4 mile swim, was previously held by John Simmons from 1998, and was broken by Sean McCormack with a time of 46.56. Previous time was 51:33. The the entire field seemed to fly down the beach. But, of course, without the familiar black line on the bottom they just could not tell how fast they were going.
Hot off a blistering St Anthony's triathlon swim (8th fastest time of the day) Mike Halfast set a new men's record in the 1000M Pass-A-Grille Challenge of
13:28.00. Of course he was beat by a girl. Former SPA and SPM member
Melissa Varlas, 32, thumped him good with an even faster
12:18.00. The record for the 1000M is now held by the women. You go girl!
Rick Walker, 54, keeps get better, not older, taking the 2.4 mile swim for USMS. With the fourth fastest time for the day, only three USA Boys bettered Rick's time of
46:26.00..
The women's winner was four time individual NCAA Division III
National Champion from
Jelgava, Latvia
via Kenyon College, 25 year old, Agnese Ozolina. Talk about a ringer, she was on the Latvia Olympic Team in 2004. Her winning time was 52:45.00. Brian Rimel plans on recruiting Agnese for SPM's afternoon Sharks Group.
THE BATTLE of the day had to be for second place overall in the women's 2.4 mile swim. Second through fifth place finishers were all only one second behind each other, Sharon Salzman (46) 54:11.00 , JoAnn Harrelson (49) 54:12.00, Mandy Zipf (39) 54:13.00 and Tillie Atkins (40) 54:14.00.
There were 10
swimmers from outside Florida:
Michigan 1,
Arizona 1,
Maryland 5,
N Carolina 2, New England ,and
ENGLAND 1 (yep like the country).
Daphne Belt
swims for Arun Trinity
and wants to bring more swimmers with her next year!. With a final count of 324 entrants, check in and packet pick up was lightning fast with NO DAY OF RACE REGISTRATION. And thanks to Livia's pre-race hard work. Many unprepared swimmers were scrambling to get in the race just before the deadline and well frankly for days afterwards. Sure hope Livia has "anytime minutes" on that mobile phone plan.
As always the Hurricane restaurant provided a buffet for the hungry swimmers. The post race stories were as cool and calm as the water except for Christine Forkois elbowing Michelle Tacia in the nose around the start buoy. That's open water swimming. Who would have every thought those two nice young women would be going at it at the start?
The quote of the day, "There were hundreds of swimmers in the water!" was by our aerial photographer not knowing exactly what the event was all about.
Special thanks to Livia Zien, Patty Nardozzi and Bruce Day, the life guards and all the volunteers for without them the race could not have been held.
2005 USMS 2.4 mile Hurricane Man Results
2005 USA 2.4 mile Hurricane Man Results
2005 USMS 1000M Pass-A-Grille Challenge Results
2005 USA 1000M Pass-A-Grille Challenge Results
2004 2.4 mile Hurricane Man Results
2004 1000M Pass-A-Grille Challenge Results
2003 Results
2002 Results
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