Ocean swim: World champion lines up in Paihia crossing

Melissa Gorman of Australia cools off after swimming in the Women's Open Water 10km race. Photo / Getty Images

The 2009 world champion Melissa Gorman takes on New Zealand champion Cara Baker in the second round of the New Zealand ocean swim series in the Bay of Islands this weekend.

Gorman, who won the Australian ocean water title this year, will compete in New Zealand for the first time in the 3.3km Paihia Classic.

It will renew the battle between the two dominant open water swimmers in either side of the Tasman in recent years. The Australian, who won her national open water title for the past five years, edged the Gold Coast-based New Zealander to runner-up last year and only six seconds separated the pair in 2010 in Victoria.

Gorman, 25, has already qualified for next year's Olympics and is using the series to prepare for London.

"For me, this year the State Ocean Swim races will play a pretty big part in my preparations for London," said Gorman. "My focus is primarily on training over the next six months, so these swims will provide the perfect opportunity for me to get in some good race practice without interfering too much with my training schedule.

"There is no substitute for race practice so, while I'm not racing over the Olympic 10km distance, I'll still be able to fine-tune my open water race skills. It's also quite easy to fly over to New Zealand to race but still keep up my training regime."

Gorman won the 5km title at the world championships in Rome in 2010, was third in the 10km the same year and fourth in Shanghai this year where she qualified for London.

The Paihia event is the first of three races in New Zealand this summer for the super-talented Australian.

"Probably one of the biggest benefits about already having qualified is the fact that I can just focus on getting in a good solid block of training, and focus my taper primarily towards the Olympic Games rather than any other meets along the way," she said. "I am really looking forward to coming to New Zealand to race and see a bit of the country."

First round winner Baker is still to qualify for London and is using the series to prepare initially for the New Zealand championships next month, and hopefully the final Olympic qualifying event in Portugal next year.

In the absence of first round winner Kane Radford, who is training in the USA, the men's race will be open with national junior champion Stefan Talbot a likely favourite from Andrew Pullon and top triathletes Graham O'Grady and Michael Poole.

However, the men will need to be on their game or they face being beaten by Gorman and Baker, which would be the first time a woman has taken the overall honours in a New Zealand ocean series event.