Flying Ferry Completes 5km-10km Open Water Double While Maddie Gough Tops TSS Onslaught

Bianca Crisp David Morgan Maddie Gough Moesha Johnson Kiah Melverton 2
TOP OF THE CLASS: The TSS Aquatic team from The Southport School on the the Gold Coast dominated the women's 5km. (L-R) Bianca Crisp, David Morgan, Maddie Gough, Moesha Johnson and Kiah Melverton. Photo: Hanson Media.

Flying Dutchman Ferry Weertman certainly showed no ill-effects from his 10km victory on Saturday to back up to complete the Brighton Beach double with a commanding Australian 5km Championship victory on Australia Day in Adelaide today.

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RELAXED RECOVERY:  Ferry Weertman from the Netherlands shows the style that won him the Rio Olympic 10km gold medal. Photo Courtesy: Swimming Australia (Delly Carr).

While in the women’s race it was the TSS Aquatic club on the Gold Coast filling the first four placings with 2019 World Championship finalist over 1500m Maddie Gough scoring a convincing victory.

Gough claimed her first Australian 5km title in 58:08.56 – 1min 53.50 ahead of her three club mates, Moesha Johnson, Bianca Crisp and Commonwealth Games silver medallist Laura Taylor.

The men were first to hit the water and it was the imposing figure of Weertman who may have been last to take up his position  in the line up off the beach but he was certainly first home.

With some of his top flight Australian opposition including Nick Sloman and Hayden Cotter, saving themselves for tomorrow’s Teams Event and the 5km Time Trial, the 27-year-old Olympic champion joined a 30-strong field in choppy conditions – leading all the way, and producing another trademark power finish over the final 100m.

Weertman, who will join Matt McGee’s Perth City group for a training camp before the Fina World Series race in Doha next month, clocked a time of 56 mins.00.24 secs to beat consistent Canadian Jon McKay (56:19.19), who was third in the 10km with Kawana Waters’ Matthew Robinson (56:19.98) third and being the first Australian home, he was crowned the Australian champion.

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FIVE STAR: Olympic champion Ferry Weertman topped the 5km placegetters ahead of Australian champion Matthew Robinson (Kawana Waters), Jon McKay (Canada), Nicholas Rollo (Perth City) and Cormac Guthrie (Sydney University). Photo Courtesy: Swimming Australia (Delly Carr).

Then followed the second Australian, Perth City’s emerging Nicholas Rollo (56:20.24) who was also the second Australian home in yesterday’s 10km race; Sydney University’s Cormac Guthrie (56:24.53); TSS Aquatic’s Riley Clout (56:25.00), who was the third Australian in the Open 10km; UWSC’s Adam Sudlow (56:34.34), Perth City’s Reilly Kennedy (56:37.66) with TSS pair Phoenix Douglas (58.25.95) and Rio Olympic bronze medallist in the 4x100m medley relay David Morgan (58:29.95) rounding out the top 10.

Weertman admitted he wanted to see how much he could push himself today after being tired from yesterday’s 10km win.

“After the first few metres I got to the lead and I tried to push myself and luckily I just stayed in the front for the rest of the race and it was actually pretty good,” said a relaxed Weertman, a popular figure amongst the large Australian open water community.

“I don’t do a lot of 5km races, it’s been a while but its always exciting to see how different the tactics can be and I really wanted to push myself today and when that chop came up half way through the race it made it a little bit harder.

“I kept pushing the race and I had a very good last straight and I was very happy with the result.”

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LIFE’S A BEACH: Olympic champion Ferry Weertman became a popular figure on the Brighton Beach Jetty alongside  open water and surf stars Simon Huitenga (Perth City) and Seven-time Pier-to-Pub Winner, Sam Sheppard, the voice of the championships in Adelaide this weekend. Photo Courtesy: Hanson Media.

Weertman admitted he actually came to Adelaide for the temperature and it wasn’t as warm as he had hoped for.

“Last year I heard the temperature was around 25, 26 degrees, this year it is just about 20 to 21 so it’s a bit colder than we expected but its been fine and a great competition,” Weertman said.

“In open water its difficult to find high level competition and the Australians are very good swimmers and with a few other internationals it’s good to be able to train here and race here with some of the best before going to Perth and the World Cup in Doha.”

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RACE READY: (L-R) Women’s Open 5km race winner Maddie Gough and her TSS Aquatic team mates Commonwealth Games silver medallist Laura Taylor who was fourth and Tahlia Dilkes. Photo Courtesy: Hanson Media.

Gough, with her main focus on June’s Olympic Trials in Adelaide in the 1500 and 800m as well as the 400m, opened up a commanding lead after the first of four 1.25km laps and continued to extend it the longer the race went.

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TSS TRIFECTA: The TSS Aquatic team topped the 5km women’s placings (L-R) Moesha Johnson (silver), Maddie Gough (gold) and Bianca Crisp (bronze). Photo Courtesy: Swimming Australia (Delly Carr).

She pushed it through all laps, leaving her TSS team mates Johnson (1:00.51.96), Crisp (1:01.08.79) and Taylor (1:01.14.55) to fight out the next three places.

The TSS girls were followed by Miami’s Jade Slee ((1:01.1.82), SLC Aquadot’s Jordan White (1:01.37.93), Perth City’s Sacha Downing (1:01.51.48) Yeronga Park’s Laura Brosnan (1:02.12.02) and Tayla Martin (1:03.31.16) from Carlile and Rebekah Weller (1:05:04.46) from Perth City rounding out the top ten.

Gough, who will be a real chance for Tokyo, especially in the 1500m said she had “done a few 5k races in the past” and decided on staying on for the open water after swimming at the SA State Swimming Championships.

“I was down in Adelaide and thought it would be good to race it, it was challenging (but not too much), I went out from the start as I don’t really like swimming in the pack so I wanted to get away (from the girls),” she laughed.

“I have been training with our open water group for the last few weeks so I’ve been doing a lot of distance which is good.”

Gough had also spent three months between September and November training under French internationally acclaimed coach Fred Vergnoux in Barcelona –the man behind the success of Spain’s 200m butterfly Olympic champion Mireia Belmonte and many other European-based Olympians.

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DIFFERENT STOKES: TSS Aquatic’s Olympic butterflyer David Morgan eyes off today’s 5km Open Water course – finishing 10th in a 30-strong field. Photo Courtesy: Hanson Media.

 

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