When push comes to shove, it must be open water swimming

Just as well ace Masterton Masters swimmer Kirsten Cameron has a sense of
humour.
For it certainly came in handy after an incident-packed two World Cup 10km open water races in Bulgaria and France earlier this month.
Cameron placed 13 th in Bulgaria but would almost certainly have finished ninth had not the second pack of five swimmers, of which she was the leader at the time, slowed to a stop because of uncertainty about the actual whereabouts of the finish line.
And then in France she was involved in a altercation with a French swimmer after about 7km which ended when Cameron was elbowed in the face and lost her goggles.... and her temper.
"I was so angry I pulled out", Cameron said. " I could see the funny side of it afterwards but when it happened..........no, I was pretty hacked off.".
Cameron paid her own way to both World Cup events with the idea of seeing how she would perform without the "political pressures" of representing anybody else other than herself.
And while she was delighted to find she had the speed and stamina to compare favourably with the quality of opposition she met there it also meant having to cope with the somewhat dubious tactics employed by some of the leading competitors.
"There is a lot of push and shove, nobody wants to give you an inch," she said. "You are constantly being battered and whacked and most of it is deliberate, it just goes with the territory".
Cameron had intended the latest World Cup races to be her last 10km open water events but she admits to "maybe" having second thoughts in that respect.
"Looking back it was tough but enjoyable It always gives a good feeling to be out there competing amongst the best," she said. "Will I do it again.........maybe, maybe not"