The first pair at the 750m start
Half way through December and it could be mistaken for mid January such has been the harshness of the weather recently.However, in the small, sleepy town of Chocen in Eastern Bohemia the temperature sneaked above zero at lunchtime only for the heavens to open and unleash a torrent of rain and sleet just in time for the first race. Luckily the downpour was short lived and had subsided by the time 39 winter swimmers jogged up to the 750m start. Snow was all around and on careful inspection many small pieces of ice could be seen casually floating downstream. This sight soon dispelled any rumours that the 1.5c water temperature was inaccurate and collective resolve began to harden at the prospect of what was to come.
The first two and the fastest two: Haltmarova & Zaoral
Due to the narrowness of the river, the differing speed of the current and not to mention a sharpish bend at halfway it had been decided that rather than a mass start the swimmers would swim two by two in a reversal of “Noahs Ark.” This took some organisation as the pairs started every 30 seconds for 10 minutes, of course with a need for sychronised watches both start and finish. It was a job well done and all went smoothly. In fact the first 6 starters (the 6 fastest swimmers on ratings) were the fastest at the finsh. Denisa Haltmarova of PK Zabreh, at 17 still a youngster and Vlastimil Zaoral (junior) not much older at 20 were the first to go and Zaoral shot off like a hungry pike on the hunt for lunch to take an immediate advantage with Haltmarova just a few metres back. In fact it was Zaoral himself who proved to be the prey as he was stalked the whole way by the zander from Zabreh Haltmarova who managed to pounce in the latter stages of the contest and ultimately take first place in the 750m with a time of 10minutes 10seconds. Zaoral was just 4 seconds slower and then it was almost a minute to Miroslav Nezhyba of Spartak Prerov and Jiri Benes of University Olomouc who shared third place. Good performances no doubt but so to were those from some of the slower participants who completed the 750m in around 17minutes. Given the testing conditions sometimes you have to wonder who deserves the plaudits? Undoubtedly, great sporting performances must be recognised and awarded but those who can endure near freezing icy water for such a long time are also to be respected. That is why winter swimming is such a great sport, it has meaning for athletes and participants of varying abilities and really it is simple – It is just swimming in extremely cold water. That makes it both the same and completely different to regular swimming in warm water. A ridiculous contradictory statement maybe, crawl is crawl whether performed in 1.5c water or 27c water. However to do it in the former you must possess a particular strength of mind and will unrelated to physical ability. Join in with our film project and help to enlighten more people about the benefits of swimming in cold water, follow this link for more details http://extremewinterswimming.com/pY
Participants in the 250m exhibition float downstream
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