After two tough years, the sixth annual Ruby Swim took place on Saturday (January 30) in the best conditions yet.

The Ruby includes a range of events from Waterfall Creek, including the most popular - The Ruby - a 2.5km lap around Ruby Island; as well as 10km, 5km, 3.8km, 1.2km, and 600m events.

“The weather makes or breaks it, if the weather’s good, everything’s good, and I don’t think we could have got a better day,” co-organiser Eddie Spearing said.

“It was just right. Last year was hard, the year before was hard, so this has really been a day out of the box.” 

The day also netted some broken course records, including a new record from Cameron Stanley in The Ruby and one from Ian Dixon Anderson in the Iron Ruby (3.8km).

Eddie estimated from the 466 entries there would have been about 420 swimmers in the water on the day.

“We cap all the events ourselves and they all filled up during the last 10 days,” he said.

Participants came from as far away as Auckland, Wellington, Napier, and Tauranga, and from all over the South Island, including a “big crew” from Timaru, and swimmers from Christchurch, Ashburton, and Invercargill.

Eddie and fellow organiser Jamie Norman are always too busy organising the event to swim themselves, but Eddie said they were gratified by the “stunning feedback”, which also showed the courses are the right lengths.

“People were just thrilled with the organisation, the registration, the on-water support, and how everything ran,” he said.

He said the swimmers were finished by 11.30am, after which the prizegiving took place. “By 1pm you wouldn’t know we’d been there.”

From left; Krystle Theunissen (support), Ferdia O’Connell, Emma Palmer (support) and Nicole Meyer (support).

Ferdia O’Connell, 20, took part in a swim for young people with differing abilities last year, and this year went the next step.

Organised in association with the M!nt Charitable Trust, the M!nt Ruby event encouraged swimmers with additional needs to tackle a 100m or 200m swim.

This year, Ferdia, who is autistic, swam the lap around the island with four swimmers and a kayaker in support.

“It's quite an achievement,” Ferdia’s mother, Claire O’Connell said.

The ongoing swimming training at Wanaka’s Recreation Centre had really helped Ferdia, she said.

Coach Rachel Rankin said last year lake swimming has multiple benefits for the M!nt crew.

“It builds confidence in their own abilities; it encourages them to try new experiences in a challenging environment; and it teaches essential water safety skills,” she said. And the goal of entering an event renews their motivation.  

“Ferdia seemed to have done it pretty comfortably - he looked stoked,” Eddie said.

The winners of The Ruby (2.5km) were Cameron Stanley (00:30:41), Xander Marsh (00:31:42), and Finn Sinclair (00:32:56).

The first three swimmers home in the Ruby10: Steven Prescott (2nd), William Tudgey (3rd), Donal Barry (1st) with event organiser Jamie Norman

The first women home were Sophie Shallard (00:33:52), Kate Bennie (00:35:33), and Sally McMath (00:36:36). The two fastest men and women in The Ruby receive rings.

Winners of The Ruby 10 (10km) were Donal Barry (2:15:06), Steven Prescott (2: 19: 22), and William Tudgey (2:36:38). The female winners were Liana Smith (2:44:45), Jude Vincent (2:55:19), and Katrina Price (2:55:29). 

PHOTOS: Wanaka App