Swimming: Sprint to line scores Swimming

Steven Kent, younger brother of Olympic swimmer Dean, showed stunning form to win his first national ocean swim series title at the King of the Bays 2.8km race off Takapuna in Auckland yesterday.

Kent, 22, won a mass sprint up the beach to take the win in the last race of the six-event series. He was in a group with Bryn Murphy, Stefan Talbot, Brent Foster, Ben Campbell-Macdonald and Australian Michael Sheil.

Making the most of calm, overcast conditions, they powered away and stayed together for almost the entire race, even leaving the water side by side.

Kent had the most energy left, winning by the narrowest of margins from Talbot and Murphy. Only 15 seconds separated the first six home.

"That was about 2.6k too far, I reckon," a tired Kent said. "I had a really good start, waited for Bryn and we swam side by side and then I guess I used my surf skills at the end to bring it home, so I'm happy with that."

Kent was backing up from the national swimming championships where he won his first title in the 200m individual medley.

In the women's race, favourite Cara Baker overcame a poor start to catch overall series leader Charlotte Webby at the midway point. Baker, the national 5km and 10km open water champion then proved strongest and took the win.

Baker left the water with only a narrow lead over Webby in the sprint to the finish.

The Brisbane-based 19-year-old said her poor start meant she had needed to work hard to catch the Taranaki swimmer.

"I saw Charlotte in front of me and thought I had to hold my pace and keep something back until the end and it worked out, I guess it was my lucky day," she said.

The results didn't alter the series placings, with Kane Radford (Rotorua) and Webby taking the titles.

- NZPA