Taking Portsea As they say, there’s never more than six degrees of separation. That’s vividly illustrated by the connection between Porsche Centre Brighton and the Portsea Surf Life Saving Club, especially now that one of Porsche Centre Brighton’s own staff members has won two races at the recent Portsea Swim Classic.
P
orsche Centre Brighton has been sponsoring the Portsea Surf Life Saving Club for many years, but this is the first time one of Porsche Centre Brighton’s staff has taken the plunge … and come out on top. First held in 1987, the Portsea Swim Classic is one of Victoria’s most popular open water swimming events with 1800 competitors. (More would attend, but the club puts a cap on the event for the sake of competitors’ safety. This year’s youngest competitor was just seven; the oldest was 87-year-old swimmer Patrick Galvin, who received a round of applause from the crowd after completing his 1.5-kilometre swim. Even this year with a looming COVID-19 presence, entries for the events filled fast. One of those entrants was Rhys Mainstone, Service Advisor at Porsche Centre Brighton. It’s not his work there that has made Rhys a household name in swim circles – it’s his equally outstanding achievements in the water. ‘I made the Australian national swim team in 2009 and raced all around the world doing marathon swimming, which was events from 5km to 25km,’ says Rhys. ‘My speciality was the 10km distance. I won a World Championship Silver in the 5km teams event in Shanghai in 2011, four National 10km titles, and five World Cup 10km events and in 2015, I came third in the World Championship Series for World Cup swimming.’
40
