PE’s prolific open water swimming siblings, Wayne, Jason and Daniel Jones are all entered for Sunday’s River Mile and will be expected to feature high up in the top 10.

The SPAR Redhouse River Mile, taking place this weekend at Cannonville on the Sundays River, is expected to draw thousands of people to the region. By close of entries on Sunday, over 800 entrants had secured their place for this historic event, with at least another 200 late entries expected before Sunday morning.

Wayne Jones has dominated the Dis-Chem 2km and 3km swims at this year’s Weekend Post Ocean Racing Series and will now go head to head with his brothers. Jason has been dominating the Dis-Chem 1km swim with Daniel a consistent second in this event. The River Mile is swum over the ‘Metric Mile’ distance of 1.5km with an incoming tide which makes it better suited to the speedy shorter distance open water swimmers.

All three Billson sisters are also entered for the Ladies’ Mile with Durban-based Carmel Billson keen to defend her title, whilst Lauren and Natalie may have plans of their own to ensure that they are high on the podium this weekend. The unknown element in both the Mile events is how the pool swimmers will feature against the more experienced open water swimmers.

Three-times defending champion, Olympic swimmer Chad Ho, is an uncertain entrant for the weekend following his record-breaking third consecutive win at last Sunday’s Midmar Mile. Ho, who has yet to qualify for the 2012 Olympics, needs to rest ahead of a hectic training schedule and may have to miss out on defending his title this year.

Further information and online entries are available on www.rivermile.co.za. All the action starts from 8am on Sunday morning at the Cannonville slipway, Colchester with vendors, stalls, kids entertainment and a Castle Lite Beer Garden to add to the festivities.

Ocean Racing Series news

The next Weekend Post Ocean Racing Series takes place at Hobie Beach on Sunday 26th February. See the Series website www.oceanracingseries.com for all the results and the Ocean Racing Series Facebook page for pictures taken by Sports Action Photography.