Rahul Jegatheva and Ingrid van der Wel celebrated our national day in style when they both claimed wins in the Mandurah Masters Swimming Club’s annual Australia Day ocean swim last Friday.
The pair showed off their prowess in the water by being the first male and female to cross the finish line in the club’s four-kilometre challenge.
Jegatheva conquered the long distance dash in a stellar 54 minutes, five seconds while van der Wel made the journey in one hour, one minute and 10 seconds.
They were joined on the winners’ podium by Mike Brown and Lyle Kildea who took out the men’s and women’s 2km swim respectively, as well as Michael Baker and Rhiannon James who were the first past the line in the 1km.
All winning swimmers received cash prizes, while plenty others went home with a special Australia Day beach towel.
All awards were presented by Mandurah Masters club member Barbara Pellick, who has completed 28 solo Rottnest Channel swims, as well as the marathon swims of the English Channel (33.7km), Catalina Channel (32.5km) and a circumnavigation swim around Manhattan Island, New York (48.5km).
Overall, more than 240 swimmers turned out to compete over the three distances at Mandurah’s Doddi’s Beach, with proceedings kicking off with a bit of stardom as masters swimming world record holder Rod Baker gave a stirring rendition of the national anthem.