Stroke & Stride Race 4: Tanner, Foster Winners

For Tanner, the win was her first in the series in six years and showed fulfillment of the promise she displayed when she won the overall series title in 1996-97 as a schoolgirl, race director Craig Browne reported.

"At Race #4 at the end of last year she looked to be back to near her best, running a close second place to Olympian Samantha Warriner, and with a New Year?s resolution to go one better in 2005 she could take a lot of stopping before this season is done," Browne said.

Tanner came out of the choppy 1000-meter swim in the lead, chased only by series newcomer Nicky Samuels, who was a slim one second down. But the veteran Tanner gained another fistful of seconds in transition and was quickly away on the 3k run, finishing four seconds up on Tanner with defending series champion Nicole Cope using a speedy run to move into third.

Among the men, it really was business as usual for Foster, as the longish swim played perfectly to his strength as one of the world's top open-water multisport swimmers. He exited the water in a blistering 12:02 and hit the finish less than 10 minutes later, with Clark Ellice in second and Sam Walker third.

"Our perennial series champion just seems to be impossible to beat when the greater proportion of the event is contained in the swim leg," Browne said. "Not for the first time this summer or for that matter this last decade, he eased away from the pack on his way out to the first buoy, then extended this lead to three-quarters of a minute over Jared Jackson by swim?s end with a further 15 seconds back to the boisterous chasing pack."

In the overall standings, Cope remains atop the ladder among the women, with Ellice on top among the men. The next race is Tuesday, January 25. There's more here.