Heath, Beasley this years swim champions

Warnings of aggressive kokiri (trigger fish) did little to deter six brave swimmers taking to Muri lagoon on Saturday for the open water national swim championships in near perfect conditions.

Just after high tide on Saturday morning, Jacob Pynenburg, Roland Neururer, Kevin Henderson, Justin Rous, John Beasley and Kelly Heath set out for the 3km swim.

The joke before they set out was that the presence of the nipping trigger fish would result in some fast swimming from the small group of competitors.

However Heath knows that trigger fish attacks are no laughing matter.

Bravely the six set out across the lagoon with Heath returning the overall national swim champion and female champion.

Heath clocked 47.13 minutes followed over three minutes later by John Beasley in 50.50 minutes to take out the national male swim champion title ahead of rival Justin Rous.

Rous took out third overall in 52.26 minutes with Kevin Henderson hot on his heels in 52.37 and Roland Neururer not far behind him in 53.05 minutes.

Once ashore the swimmers swapped more stories of nasty trigger fish encounters and discussions of more regular swim meets in the 2012 season.

Cook Islands Aquatics Federation would like to thank all athletes, officials and volunteers for their participation and effort over the recent swim season.