After taking the 10km race by a healthy margin on Saturday, New Zealand’s Kane Radford got a much tighter battle in Sunday’s 5km race, specifically from Japan’s Yasunari Hirai.
The two are training partners at Uniswim in Western Australia, and had another great head-to-head battle for New Zealand supremacy.
In the most underrated part of an open water swim, Hirai lunged first for the finish-pad, which is suspended above the water, and missed. By the time he recovered and was able to ascend from the water for a second attempt, Radford had snuck his hand in and won the race.
The women’s race was won by Sacha Downing, also from Uniswim, marking a double-double (she won the women’s 10km event).