Australian Open Water Nationals - Eric Hedlin Strikes Gold in the 5km

UVic and UVPCS swimmers Eric Hedlin and Chris Deegan were in South Australia's Brighton Beach this past weekend, competing in the 10km Open Water race, as well as the 5km Open Water Time Trial event. 

Eric Hedlin was able to win the 5km time trial event in a time of 52:42:01.  Eric had a dissapointing result in the 10km race as he fell back to 17th place once the course became choppy.  Chris Deegan had a good 10km race, but ultimately missed his goal of being in the top 4 of Australians (which would have placed him on an International team), placing 8th overall (6th Australian) in a time of 1:53:24.  He was less than 2 seconds back of the 4th Australian in the race.  Chris finished the 5km time trial in a time of 54:18:00, placing 14th of 30 competitors.