Picture perfect conditions greeted participants in this year's Newcastle Australia Day harbour swim events.
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An enthusiastic and colourful crowd gathered at Queens Wharf to cheer on about 200 participants in the 700 metre event.
Riley Twiss won the race in 7 minutes and 38 seconds closely followed by Sampson Ward who recorded a time of 7 minutes and 43 seconds. Franki Roberts won the women's 700m event.
An hour later, Stuart Swinburn won the 1400 metre event in 14 minutes and 24 seconds. He was followed by Hayden Smith who recorded 15 minutes and 28 seconds. In the women's 1400m, Stephanie Carey was triumphant.
Now in its 28th year, the harbour swim is Stockton Surf Club's largest fundraiser and is sponsored by the City of Newcastle and Port Waratah Coal Services.
"It's a great community event that has gone from strength to strength and the support we get from our sponsors is amazing," surf club president Paul Bernard said.
"It's definitely changed over the years. We have tried to make it as big as we can - it's a community event that everyone can participate in but, at the same time, there is a race on."
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The event is considered to be one of the richest ocean races in the country and attracts competitors from across the state.
"People expect it to be on and we have lots of return visitors. When it's on a weekend we tend to attract more people from interstate," Bernard said.
"We are always looking at ways to improve the event and make it better. One of the benefits of Covid is that it helped to streamline our check-in process, which frees up volunteers to do other stuff. It has also allowed money to be transferred a lot more easily."
Funds raised are used to purchase and maintain rescue vehicles and equipment, nippers' uniforms and education for lifesavers.
"We deliver a high quality event that importantly raises vital funds for our surf patrols and lifesaving operations at Stockton beach," club spokesman Daniel Danuser said.
Once a year swimmers are legally allowed to cross the world's largest coal port from Stockton to Newcastle, when the harbour master gives the surf club the all-clear to start the race.
Water-safety staff on boards, jet skis and rubber duckies accompany swimmers across the harbour.Newcastle-bred Olympic swimmers Thomas Fraser-Holmes and Justin Norris are both previous winners of the event.
The event has been only been cancelled twice - the first time was in 2015 when the harbour's water quality was deemed unsafe to swim in. The second time occurred during Covid.
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