Bunbury Swimming Club duo Thomas Blandford and Amie Holwill place inside top three of Busselton Jetty Swim

Bunbury Swimming Club pair Thomas Blandford and Amie Holwill were the most prominent swimmers from the South West in Sunday’s Busselton Jetty Swim, finishing third in their respective divisions in the 3.6km solo race. Defying choppy conditions on the day of the race, teenager Blandford was the third swimmer to the shore, finishing in a time of 44min 13.2 sec. An enthralling finish to the race saw him come in just behind winner Madoc Lanfear-Appleby (44:03.6) and second-placed Tristan van Waas (44:09.7), with all the race’s top three all hitting the finish line within 10 seconds of each other. Holwill, who is also a coach at the club, was third-fastest in the female field in a time of 48:06.5, behind winner Bianca Monaco (45:31.8) and Rosie Wilson (46:54.2). The female top 10 in the solo race featured plenty of South West representation in Bunbury’s Ingrid Blandford (fourth), Dunsborough’s Ruby McClellan (eighth) and Busselton’s Melina Dimitriadou-Peirce (ninth), while Bunbury teenager Mitchell Tuckey finished 10th in the male division in a time of 48:06.4. Speaking after winning the 30th edition of the event, Lanfear-Appleby said he had drawn confidence from the withdrawal of Australind-raised Olympian Kyle Lee, who has won the last five editions of the race. “I didn’t know if he was or wasn’t doing it. I heard he was but when he wasn’t there, it was anyone’s race,” he said. Lanfear-Appleby said he had enjoyed the “really good community event”. “It’s quite a challenging event and you get the best of WA doing it, so it’s a race against them,” he said. Female winner Monaco, who dethroned back-to-back winner Wilson to be the first female to shore, said she was shocked by the result. “I was trying to go the fastest I could and try the hardest I could. I was super happy to know I was the fastest out there,” she said. “I saw at the start that there were a lot of strong competitors and I was happy with that.” For the 3.6km solo race, 3351 swimmers took part, with more than 5000 competing across the main event, 1.6km swim, 500m swim, kids race and team swims.