A Paris Olympics hopeful and a 13-year-old Newcastle girl were the big winners at the annual Newcastle Harbour Swim on Friday.
Ashtonfield 21-year-old Reece Caddy won the 1400-metre double-crossing event in 14 minutes and 33 seconds despite the turning buoy blowing off its mooring midway through the race.
Stephanie Carey defended her title as the first woman across the line and finished fifth overall in the 1400m race in a time of 15 minutes and 14 seconds.
Franki Roberts, a 13-year-old NUSwim club competitor from Newcastle, beat the men and women home in the 700m single crossing in eight minutes and 23 seconds.
Caddy, from Hunter Swim Club, will compete at the national titles in April and Australian Olympic trials in June hoping to win a seat on the plane to Paris this year.
He made the final of the 200m butterfly at the national championships last year and rates himself an outside chance of making the team in his pet event.
"I'm sitting in the top 10 in Australia for that and hoping to do a little bit better to make the Australian team," he said after conquering choppy waters on the harbour.
For many of the swimmers in the middle of the pack and the rear of the field, the double crossing became a marathon after the turning buoy blew east towards the harbour entrance, forcing many competitors into a tough swim back to Queens Wharf against a strong westerly wind.
Caddy said the mooring appeared to break free just as he was nearing it on the Stockton side of the harbour.
"I think just as I came in towards the red buoy I could feel it come up.
"That was probably the hardest point of the race because I was getting heavy and it was getting hard and starting to pick up.
"It got super hard out there."
Roberts said she was surprised to realise she had women the overall 700m event.
"I was coming in and I realised that no one was in front of me and I was like, 'Oh, have I won this?'" she said.
"Then I tapped the wall and they said first place and I was like, 'Oh my god, that's amazing.'"
The teenager is training for about seven events at the national age championships in April.
Matt Brady and Eleanor Judd finished second and third in the 700m event.
Luc Kroon and Jensen Goodchild were second and third in the men's double crossing, and Matilda Smith and Andie Widseth filled the minor placings in the 1400m women's race.
The 27th annual Australia Day swim attracted more than 500 competitors.
The swim raises money for Stockton Surf Life Saving Club.
