Vic; Bracks tries water ahead of Lorne ocean swim

AAP General News (Australia)
12-27-2001
Vic; Bracks tries water ahead of Lorne ocean swim

MELBOURNE, Dec 27 AAP - Completing the 1.2km Pier to Pub ocean swim this weekend will
be a breeze compared with a day in parliament, Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said today.

"I'm used to swimming with sharks," Mr Bracks quipped as he prepared for a brief training
swim with son Nick, 14, at Williamstown in Melbourne today.

Premier Bracks is one of a team of ministers training for the January 5 event which,
with 4,000 entries, is one of the world's largest ocean water swims at Lorne, southwest
of Melbourne.

The cabinet team will include Transport Minister Peter Batchelor, a regular participant,
Health Minister John Thwaites and probably Sports Minister Justin Madden, who Mr Bracks
said had been training on the sly.

The former AFL player and now Sports Minister was probably the government's best swimmer,
Mr Bracks said.

"He has an enormous advantage with his height (at 207cm tall)," Mr Bracks said.

"Justin's been doing some secret training. He hasn't declared whether he'll be going
in but I understand from sources that he will."

Mr Bracks, who swam today with former Olympic swimmer Nicole Stevenson, and national
surf league stars, Nick Hinsley and Naatali Marshall, said he was not aiming to break
any records.

"I'm pretty slow, I'm plodding along because I haven't done much training at all but
I have been picking it up in the last couple of weeks," he told reporters.

Nevertheless Stevenson said the premier had the build to be a good swimmer.

"He's a bit like Thorpie ... he's a leg-dominated athlete, though he doesn't have size-14
feet," she said.

Mr Bracks last completed the swim in 2000 with a time of 21 minutes and 15 seconds
for a 234th placing.

He says he'll be happy with a 20-minute time this year.

Organisers said the 2002 event, the 22nd staging of the swim, would be a new record
for entries despite an early closing for registrations which unsuccessfully tried to reduce
the numbers.

A spokeswoman for the Pier to Pub swim said that while the event "just kept growing",
numbers had to be limited because large crowds of swimmers created the risk of an accidental
drowning.

AAP ra/jlw/cdh/br

KEYWORD: PIER BRACKS

2001 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.