Ace Masterton Masters swimmer Kirsten Cameron continued a run of impressive form with two second placings at the South Australian open water championships held in Adelaide last week.
Cameron came within 4secs of beating top-ranked Australian Melissa Benson in the women's open 5km event and was also second to Benson in
the women's open 10km race. Her time over the 5km course was 1hr.0min 31sec and for the 10km course 2hr 5mins 28secs. A sore shoulder which Cameron puts down to some intensive training in various strokes didn't help her cause in either event and she was "more than happy" with her results.
"Honestly, it was all about getting in a couple of good races rather than worrying too much where I actually finished," she said.
Earlier Cameron had won the 800m freestyle and placing third in the 400m freestyle at the New Zealand spring meet and then followed two 10km open water swims in Hong Kong and Singapore where she placed 19th and 11th respectively, her Hong Kong placing having special merit as she actually had her goggles ripped off there and had to swim 2km without them before she got thrown a spare pair.
And on her return to New Zealand Cameron broke two world records for the 30-34yrs age group in the 1500m and 800m freestyle at another Masters meet.
The Australian open water championships in Melbourne could be Cameron's next major assignment with the emphasis very much on the could.
Original plans were for her to definitely be a starter there but because placings there won't count towards her main aim, selection in the New Zealand team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she is unsure whether it will be on her agenda.
Rather, her focus is now more on the world open water championships in Seville in February where a top 10 placing in the 10km open swim would qualify her for Beijing and the Oceania open water championships which is the last of the qualifying events for Olympic selection.
While optimistic of realising her Olympic dream Cameron readily concedes that with only 25 swimmers able to contest the 10km open water swim there nothing is guaranteed in that respect.
"There's a lot of ifs and buts at the moment and all you can do is give it your best shot and hope that's good enough," she said.
