It was always going to be a race for the silver medal. Evergreen Steve Prescott had the top spot sewn up.
The Dunedin City Council aquatic services manager retained his New Zealand Masters Games harbour title in convincing fashion on the Vauxhall course on Saturday.
Prescott (57) won the two-lap 3km race in 29min 20sec and was followed home by Dunedin Masters Swim Club members Richard Jongens in 31min 13sec, Kieran Garbutt in 31min 22sec, Stephen Clarke in 33min 45sec, Mark Johnson in 34min 15sec and Willi McDonald in 39min 50sec.
Prescott threw down the gauntlet from the start.
"I went out fast and made the others work hard to try and catch me," he said.
At the end of the first lap Prescott was leading by 70m from Jongens and Garbutt who had settled for the minor medals.
" I'd got through the first lap and saw where they were," Prescott said. "They would have to work hard to catch me."
Prescott found the hardest part of the course was "going out to the second buoy. There was a bit of a chop out there.
"The tide was coming in and pushing me away. I had to adjust my stroke a bit on the long haul upstream before the turn for home."
Prescott used the knowledge from his surf background to adjust to the motion of the waves.
The super-fit Prescott has won a gold medal in the event at the past five Masters Games in Dunedin. He also won in 1998 and 2000 and this was his seventh title.
Prescott, one of the best open water swimmers in the world, won the gold medal in the ocean swim at the world masters swimming championships at Melbourne in 2003 and Edmonton in 2005.
He has also won seven world championship gold medals in the pool.
Prescott's next target is to become the oldest swimmer to swim Cook Strait.
Jongens applied pressure 350m out to take the sting out of Garbutt and finished 9sec in front.
University of Otago laboratory technician Katie Price, a talented pool swimmer in the past, won the gold medal in the women's section in 33min 59sec from Dunedin's Anne Gray in 34min 40sec.
Riverton farmer Don Frew won the men's 1500m race in 17min 30sec and Te Anau police officer Heather Wyllie (Queenstown) won the women's section in 20min 03sec.
Dunedin's Jo Burgess won the gold medal in the women's 500m in 15in 15sec from Helen Hanson (Dunedin) in 16min 58sec.
