2026 LORNE PIER TO PUB
- Saturday, January 10th
- Lorne, Victoria, Australia
- Open Water
- Event Central
- Results
The 2026 edition of the annual Lorne Pier to Pub race, one of the world’s largest ocean swims, took place on Saturday, January 10th, in Victoria, Australia.
Starting at the Lorne Pier and finishing at the Lorne Surf Life Saving Club, the competition spans approximately 1.2k and attracts nearly 5,000 amateur and professional competitors.
22-year-old world champion Sam Short topped the men’s 1.2k podium in 11:52, with Nick Sloman earning silver in 12:24 and William Petric also landing on the podium in 12:39, good enough for bronze.
On the women’s side, 23-year-old relay Olympic champion Lani Pallister beat the field, registering a time of 12:50 to earn her remarkable 7th-consecutive title in this open water contest.
Dakoda Mathers earned silver in 13:32 followed by Sopie Jacka who bagged bronze in 14:12.
Additional Notable Finishers
- 13th place – Thomas Ceccon (ITA)
- 16th place – David Schlicht
- 4th place women –Â Tara Kinder
Lani is so dominant and impressive in any “surf race” I have seen her swim, absolute gun!!
Anyone seen Sam Short’s entry in Australian Openwater 10k/5k/3k knockout races in a few weeks? His 1500 pool training partner (Tiana Kitzinger) has entered the Women’s 10k as well, very interested to see how they handle the longer distances. The rumoured European Openwater stars turning up were just that…..rumours 😢.
Maybe he’s thinking of doing the open water 4×1500 in the future? 🤔
I am sure the powers that be are hoping the same thing. Curious to see if he ends up more like a Paltrinieri/Wellbrock kind of Openwater beast or if he’s out of his depth in the longer stuff like a number of other 1500 pool swimmers? Also a lot of Openwater race locations and travel time to think of and how that interacts with his pool races? Keen to see where this goes.
Honestly I’d prefer to see him just do the relay and then focus on the pool. There were a few others that did the same last year.
Hey guys, open water wave starts over about 4 hours with different tide conditions. You need to look at the Category, not Overall results. Superfish (Elites) swim last and earlier races are usually faster, relatively speaking. Nick Sloman was second. And Lani ahead by 42s.
Wowsers. Brenton Ford getting second and being that close to Sam is impressive!
He swam earlier in the day when the tide was much lower, more running=much faster time
Lani through the ages.
Thomas Ceccon?
When in Rome …