Conditions were extremely tough during the inaugural Telkom Virgin Active Swim Challenge Series first race at the Hazelmere Dam near Durban in the Zulu Kingdom, Kwazulu Natal, on Sunday.

It was a successful day for Melissa Corfe as expected as she raced ahead of a quality field to bag the R1000 prize for her efforts while Shaun Dias and younger opponent Riaan Schoeman provided the spectators with an exciting duel.

Corfe won by a clear 41 seconds in 13min 28sec as Nicole O'Driscoll headed home the next chasing group that included Melanie Greyling, Cheryl Townsend and Gaby Bombardeiri, all within 18 seconds of each other.

Greyling had earlier won the women's section of the 5km race with an encouraging 1hr 04min 27sec ahead of Bombardeiri by just 28 seconds after the two had battled it out for much of the 3-lap course. 14-year-old Kirsten Mower was third in 1:15:35. The 19-year-old also took to the dam for the 500m race, winning the women’s section and finishing third overall in 7min 24sec to complete a tough day of swimming.

A late entry from Dias (17) provided the race of the day as 15-year-old Schoeman pushed him all the way in the choppy waters, before edging ahead on the final 100 metres to win by seven seconds in the fastest overall time of the day in 12min 36sec.

Paul Dias took the third spot some 38sec back as another chasing group followed in Tyler Doveton, Rohan Jacobs and Mark Volker all within 30 seconds.

It was Volker who raced the 5km earlier and won overall in 1hr 03min 50sec followed by Kenneth Smith (1:07:30) who has just returned to competitive swimming, while Andrew Atkinson was a distant third in 1:36;44.

Volker completed a good day of racing by tackling the 500m dash as well, winning in 7min 16 seconds while young Myles Brown (12) threatened the older swimmers to finish second overall in 7min 18sec.

It was Brown who earlier lead home the boys 13 years and younger age group over the 1km event, clocking an encouraging 14min 07sec while Henri Schoeman edged out David Lindeque by just two seconds for the minor placings.

In the girls 13 years and under, Caitlin Edwards enjoyed a seven seconds lead over Che Fryer to win in 13min 10sec with Gina Laurie third another 39sec adrift.

Results of the women and men over 30 years of age proved interesting with few surprises. Rita Townsend and Heather Campbell finished fourth and fifth respectively among the 13 years and under age group to dominate the 41-50 age division while Ted Townsend again proved his fitness in the same men’s age group as he went on to finish 5th overall among the youngsters.

Full results are available on the website www.swimsa.co.za . The next leg of the series moves north to the Klerksdorp Dam this Sunday and then returns to KZN with the Albert Falls Dam as the venue on 31 October.