One of New Zealand's top open water swimmers, Kane Radford from Rororua, has won the Russell to Paihia leg of the national Ocean Swim series by just eight seconds from the defending champion Bryn Murphy of Dunedin.
The first woman to finish the 3.3 kilometre swim was Taranaki's Charlotte Webby with the Auckland Olympian Melissa Ingram second.
More than 750 swimmers competed in either the harbour swim or shorter races.
The third race in the series of six is the Capital Classic in Wellington on Saturday 29th January.
