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Story: Open water swimming

The fastest woman

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The fastest Cook Strait champion

Twenty-one-year-old Denise Anderson, pictured with her coach Duncan Laing, crossed Cook Strait from south to north on 20 January 1986, in an amazing time of five hours four minutes.

Using this item

Otago Daily Times

Reference: 23 January 1986, p. 20

Permission of the Otago Daily Times must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Nancy Swarbrick, Open water swimming – Major marathon courses, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/6912/the-fastest-woman (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Nancy Swarbrick, published 2 March 2009, updated 1 February 2016.