Perth young gun Max Coten wins the Albany Harbour Swim in dominant fashion for the second year running

Young Perth swimmer Max Coten has dominated the Albany Harbour Swim for the second straight year, finishing a convincing winner on Easter Saturday morning. Coten was a cut above the rest of his rivals in Princess Royal Harbour, finishing in an overall time of 46min.54sec. to slash more than a minute off his 2021 time of 48:28. He was more than four minutes ahead of runner-up Giacomo Lucivero, who finished in 50:47. Mandurah’s Rebekah Weller was the first female to emerge from the water, finishing just six seconds after Lucivero with an impressive time of 50:53. Albany’s Christine Murray (54:53) and Benjamin Ruett (56:26) were next out of the water, finishing fourth and fifth respectively overall. Just under 90 contestants took on the harbour swim that started at the Princess Royal Sailing Club and finished in front of Anzac Peace Park in superb weather. With Coten taking out top honours in the male category and Lucivero and Ruett finishing second and third, Justin Venter (59:46) and Angus Bowles (1:02:13) rounded out the top five males. Just six competitors in all divisions finished with a time under an hour, including two contestants from the wetsuit division in Liam Roberts (52:19) and Kieren Jon Lawrenson (52:59). Weller’s performance earned her the top spot in the female category ahead of 2021 winner Murray as Caitlin Williams (1:03.32), Katy Welch (1:04.41) and Megan McDonald (1:04.47) completed the top five. An experienced open-water swimmer, Coten said the result was ideal but he wasn’t overly confident going into the event. “I came off the Rottnest swim this year, so I’ve been doing a fair bit of training,” he said “I just went into it with the philosophy of whatever happens will happen, you can never really go into a race knowing or expecting an outcome. “The conditions were really good, it was lovely and flat apart from about 1.5km in when it started to get a bit choppy. “Everyone else I have spoken to had said the same thing but it was a lovely, sunny day so what’s not to love?” In the legend categories, Steven Povee finished first for the males in 1:03.53 and Beth Hearle (1:08.41) won the female division. Mitchell Loverock (1:30.26) and Coco Smargiassi (1:06.15) were the youth male and female winners respectively.