By JARROD POTTER
MOST people would not want to swim six kilometres in a lifetime, but for Haileybury Waterlions’ open water swimmer Dean Wilson, that was all in a day’s work for the Pier to Pub 5000 champion.
Wilson, 16, from Bonbeach, flew through the surf at Lorne last weekend as he claimed the Pier to Pub 5000 – a five-kilometre open water race down the Surf Coast held on Sunday 8 January.
His time of 59.03 minutes was the only time for the race under the one-hour mark as the Waterlions’ dynamo stormed home ahead of Gungahlin’s John Fox and Ivanhoe’s Darius Schultz.
“It was good – it was a good course as there was only one lap instead of four and I really liked it… swam pretty well which felt good as well,” Wilson said.
“I looked behind and didn’t see much so that was good… there was a big cheer for getting across the line.”
He backed up his 5000m victory a few hours later when he re-entered the water and swam the prestigious Pier to Pub – the annual 1.2km open-water race held since the 1970s. Wilson was pipped into ninth position in the Open Male category – finishing 15th overall.
He was in contention for a top-four spot, riding on the last breaking wave with five other swimmers, before a sprint to the line pushed him down the pack to finish the day with another starring performance.
“I was four seconds behind third place – we all came off the same wave, so it was the run over the beach which made the difference,” Wilson said.
Haileybury Waterlions’ swimming coach Wayne Lawes – said the progress the open-water dynamo has shown in a couple of years has been extremely impressive.
“He’s developed a long way but I think the main thing now is his work ethic and his willingness to work hard,” Lawes said.
“We’ve still got a lot of development left to go and he’s been working extremely hard this season… it’s been a gradual progression.
“In the next couple of seasons that’s where we hope to see the big rewards from what he’s doing as it will take those three or four years to get the background to do the 10km properly, but his attitude is fantastic for that sort of work.”
Wilson’s next goal is to excel once again at the Swimming Australia Open Water Championships, held in Fremantle Perth next month where he will compete in the 5km and 10km events.
He finished second in the 10km and third in the 5km race at last year’s Open Water Championships, which were held in Geelong
