[SWIMMING]
After four days of very competitive swimming this week at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex, it was time to hit the beach yesterday morning. About a quarter of the 1,100 competitors in the U.S. Masters Short Course National Swimming Championships decided to test the waters of an open-ocean race off Sans Souci Beach. Masters take to ocean
By Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.comIt turned into a contact sport for some and an unexpected encounter with marine life off the reef for others. For lifeguard Randy Eickhoff, it was a first-place finish to culminate two weeks of competition on opposite sides of the country.
Eickhoff, 36, held off Ron Karnaugh, 35, during the final 100 yards, finishing the 1.2-mile swim in 21 minutes, 40.1 seconds. Karnaugh, who broke five national 35-39 age-group records this week, finished in 21:57.1.
"Any time you get to swim in Hawaii it's fantastic," said Eickhoff, who competed last week in Florida at the World Lifesaving Championships. "Today was really smooth on the way out (830 meters to the first buoy). When you turned the corner, it was a complete different environment with a lot of chop and wind.
Coming back, the guy in second (Karnaugh) closed fast. I can't sprint to save my life. Thankfully, he went off course a little at the end. I got lucky."
Due to conditions, the course was shortened from the original 1.25 miles. It still presented plenty of challenges for the 293 finishers, from a shallow reef to the right on the way out to rogue waves off the turning buoy to an outgoing tide greeting the swimmers on the way in.
The competitors used various strokes to cope: freestyle, breast and "flailing along," as one swimmer described it.
Cold water wasn't among the problems. Chase Baker, a 29-year-old member of the Patriot Masters Swim Team from Fairfax, Va., is used to much colder swims on the East Coast.
"And there was a lot more to see here," said Baker, finishing in 30 minutes. "I saw a lot of fish, the water was clear and you could see the bottom."
Baker, who swam in high school, was an inspiration to competitors and noncompetitors all week. His right leg was amputated below the knee following a car accident his senior year in high school.
"I took about a year to recover and when I went to college, I started playing volleyball on an amputee team," he said. "The guys on the team got me back involved with swimming and then I got into triathlons.
"A lot of masters swimmers now are triathletes trying to learn to swim. I've been swimming since I was six."
It was Lydia Young's first ocean swim. She and Rocky Mountain Masters teammates Louise Wise and Pattie Meeks crossed the finish line on the beach as a group, holding hands.
"It was our first so we decided to stay together," said Young, making her first trip to Hawaii in 35 years. "It was more than I thought it was going to be. You have to pay attention out there."
This was the first time that the U.S. Masters Swimming had held its nationals in Hawaii. Capping the week with the ocean swim with Diamond Head as the backdrop added to the experience.
"This was the first time that Janet (Renner) and I had been meet directors," said Amy Patz. "So we didn't know what traditionally had been done and hadn't been done in the past. From the feedback we got, everyone appreciated the little "Hawaii" touches ... the shell leis, the hula at the opening ceremonies."
It was very successful in terms of record times as well. There were 76 individual marks and four relay team marks set over the four days of pool competition.
There were more than a dozen former Olympic champions in the meet, including several members of the 1960 team from the Rome Games. Bill Mulliken (gold, 200 breast) and Jeff Farrell (gold, 4x100 medley and 4x200 free relays) were among those who took a group picture Thursday with Waikiki resident Aileen Riggin Soule, the oldest living U.S. Olympic gold medalist (1920).
The 96-year-old Soule, who no longer competes, saw one of her five age-group records broken this week. Julia Dolce, 92, of Garden State Masters finished the 90-94 200 freestyle in 4:56.62, breaking Soule's time of 4:56.80 set in 1996.
Note: Out of the 138 teams competing this week, the Hawaii Masters won both the men's Large Team and Combined Team titles this week. The women's Large Team title went to Rocky Mountain Masters. The Medium Team titles went to The Olympic Club (men and combined), San Diego Swim Masters (women). The Small Team titles were won by City of Las Vegas (men and combined) and D.C. Masters (women).