Run with Jessica Hull dream come true as brother duo claim men's long race at Wollongong Aquathon

The Aquathon returned for another year off the back of two restricted editions of the event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Just a few days prior, event organisers were thrilled with the 1,200 people entered in the event, but were almost knocked over by the final count of over 1,600 people.

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There were plenty of juniors involved in the day, but one young girl in particular had the day of her life, competing next to Hull.

10-year-old Zoe Bayo was almost lost for words post race - mainly due to the massive effort of her swim and run, but said she was glad she stepped outside her comfort zone.

"It was just something different," Bayo said.

"I'm normally just a pool swimmer and I've never raced open water before and it was pretty cool to do it my first time with Jess. Everyone here is really cool to compete with as well and I had a few of my friends from swimming here doing it with me to so.

"I'm just really grateful to Jess."

Hull said sharing the experience with Bayo was something special.

"She came up with the idea [to compete together] and I was like yes straight away. It was really cool and it was the first open pool swim for her so that was exciting. It's been cool, you don't get to do this all too often and it's really fun."

Meanwhile in the men's long aquathon it will be a happy car ride home back to Rockdale in Sydney tonight with brother duo Joel and Josh Wooldridge finishing first and second respectively in the race.

"It was really tough, that second half of the run was pretty brutal coming back I was just trying to hang on and not look behind and just keep my pace up until I crossed the finish line," Joel said.

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"It was a really good atmosphere, it doesn't feel too serious and everyone's out there having a go and that's what it's all about."

Joel added that his brother Josh would be shouting him a coffee on the way home as a result of finishing second behind him.

There were many more travellers to Wollongong than in the last previous years, something that really pleased event organisers.

"The biggest thing that I've always said is that it's a feel good event, it's got a fun, community vibe and we try and make it welcoming as we can. The other thing that is making it really good this year is we're seeing a lot more people from regional NSW that are visiting. So we're seeing an uptick back to some of those visitors," race director Rob Battocchio told the Mercury earlier in the week.

This year, there were four swim-run distance events at Wollongong Harbour - kids aqua, mini aqua, short aqua and long aqua - as well as the 'blue-mile 5 fun run', which was an event that anyone can join in no matter the level of experience.

2023 was the 23^rd edition of the event and it will look to grow bigger and bigger in the future off the back of the pandemic.

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