Posted on: Monday, July 9, 2001

Swimming
Flanagan, Tennant splash to victories

By Mike Tymn
Special to The Advertiser

Flanagan: Won men's title in time of 42:29.7

Tennant: Finished sixth overall in 51:24.6

John Flanagan doesn't know what it means to take it easy.

You would think that after winning the U.S. National 10-kilometer Open Water Championship in Florida two weeks ago, he would have approached yesterday morning's 2.4-mile Surf & Sea North Shore Challenge as sort of a dip in the pond.

"Oh no, it's a race," Flanagan responded when asked if he was holding anything back during his victory yesterday. "I tried to swim it as I will be swimming two weeks

from now (in the world championships)."

Flanagan, 25, won the race from 'Ehukai Beach Park to Waimea Bay by nearly five minutes while clocking 42 minutes, 29.7 seconds.   Evan Duffin Barnes, 15, was second in 47:16.5, while 43-year-old Brett Phillips edged Peter Hursty, 28, for third by four seconds in 48:04.6.

Finishing sixth overall, Deidre Tennant, 29, won the women's race over defending champion Jodi Jackson, 24, 51:24.6 to 52:04.4. June McLain, 39, was third, just eight seconds behind Jackson.

With a record 257 entries, 53 more than last year, the race got under way at 9 a.m. Duffin Barnes was the early leader as Flanagan played catch-up.

"I was a little caught off guard at the start," said Flanagan, a Punahou School graduate and now head coach for the Kamehameha Schools aquatics program. "I was warming up and sort of far out, so I had to cut back in. I just tried to build into the race and get stronger and stronger as I went."

Flanagan caught Duffin Barnes about 600 yards into the race and stroked away. "I was getting into a groove by that time," said Flanagan, who will compete in both the 5K (3.1 miles) and 10K (6.2 miles) in the worlds at Fukuoka, Japan, in two weeks.

Tennant, whose training is aimed primarily at the Tinman Triathlon in two weeks, had no idea she was leading the women's race.

"I just found one guy at the start and hung on to him the whole way," said Tennant, a physical therapy student at the University of Hawai'i and former swimmer for LaSalle University in Philadelphia. "The conditions were pretty calm."

The North Shore Swim Series continues with Cholo's 2000 Swim at Waimea Bay on July 21 and concludes with the Surf & Sea Cup, a 1.2-mile contest from Hale'iwa to Puena Point and back, on Aug. 4.