Saturday, June 2, 2001

[ OCEAN SPORTS]

DENNIS ODA / STAR-BULLETIN
Hank Oppenhbom represented Florida in the Surf Rescue Swim
race at the Hawaiian International Ocean Challenge at
Makapuu Beach yesterday.

‘Down under’
dynasty threatened

California challenges New
Zealand's 2-year grip on
Ocean games

---

By Grace Wen
Star-Bulletin

If the first day of lifeguard competition in the Hawaiian Airlines World Ocean Games is any indication, the 12th annual event could for the first time crown a winner that doesn't come from south of the equator.

Teams from New Zealand and Australia have won the international lifeguard challenge every year since its inception, with New Zealand winning most recently in 1999 and 2000.

But California could be the first United States team to win, as it leads the field of nine with 117.5 points after four events. It is the first time in the history of the event that a California team has led after the first day.

"We were in second place after the last event and now we're back in first going into the next day," California manager Scott Diederich said.

"For us, that's a great psychological edge. The Australians, we know, will be extremely tough tomorrow. The Hawaiians will be extremely tough with the outrigger race being the first race of the day."

Solid performances all day and victories in two events pushed California ahead of Australia -- second with 115 points. New Zealand, Hawaii and New Jersey round out the top five.

California won both the surf rescue swim and the swim relay race. The team of Blaine Morgan and Anthony Vela took the top spot in the rescue swim.

In the relay, Heidi Hannenian, winner of Monday's ocean mile swim, built a huge lead for California during the first leg against women from each team. Tim Gair expanded the lead and the Californians never relinquished it.

For Australia, Heath Collie and Steve Pullen scored big points with their one-two finish in the paddle board race. Australia also went 1-3 with Dean Gardiner and Michael Murry in the 4.3-mile surfs race.

Gardiner, who won the Molokai Challenge two weeks ago, was never challenged, while Scott Pritchard out-paddled Murry in the final stretch to take second for New Zealand.

Team Hawaii was second after the paddleboard race, but a series of miscues in the final of the surf rescue swim resulted in a last place finish and dropped the team to fourth overall.

"I messed up big time," John Flanagan said. "I started way behind everyone and this one Kiwi guy was going right a little bit and I followed him out. I ended up going wide right. Everything that (could) go wrong did go wrong in that race."

Flanagan made up for his earlier mistakes when he swam the anchor leg of the swim relay race. Team Hawaii was in eighth place heading into the final leg but Flanagan caught and passed four swimmers to finish fourth.

"It's not where I wanted Hawaii to be," manager Mark Cunningham said. "But, (today) is our strong day. With the canoe and the paddleboard relay, we're going to make up some ground."

Today's events include the outrigger canoe race, paddleboard relay, beach flags and ocean medley. Competition begins at 10 a.m. at Kailua Beach Park.