A picturesque wintery setting for the start of the 1km
The first advent weekend beckoned and the calls for more severe weather obviously reached the right place and whats more had the desired effect as temperatures plummeted and snow fell through Friday night and into Saturday morning carpeting everything in about 5-10cm of the magical white substance. Aesthetically pleasing there is no doubt but more importantly for lovers of cold water swimming the water had cooled quite considerably to 3.5c meaning that according to the rules of winter swimming this was the first meeting of the season to be contested in true winter water.
The Labe river in the centre of Hradec Kralove was the venue and as the snow stopped the sun came out and with the air temperature a dry zero it really was a fantastic winter scene with no difficulties or unpleasantness….at least for the spectators! The first sub 4c water of the season and also the first river race of the season and the Labe was in fine form, flowing at somewhere around 17 metres per minute, allowing even the most leisurely winter swimmers to tackle the maximum 1km course without fear of exceeding the 22 minute time limit. 35 hardy participants opted for the 1km and although it took some time for everyone to get in position, (which is always the case when descending a steep bank into flowing water) the start was fair and even. Not that it would have made much difference to Milan Stencl of PK Zabreh who broke away quickly and floated off towards the finish like a log in white water by which time he was 16 seconds clear of the field with a winning time of 12m57. In flowing water this isn’t such a small margin and his victory was more comfortable than tight. Perhaps he was spurred on by the shock of the cold water water and the thought of getting back to a warm changing rooom and some hot tea. Taking second place was inevitably Vlastimil Zaoral (Junior) of Spartak Prerov who after taking his first win of the season in the last race was back to second spot today. However he managed to finish ahead of his father Vlastimil Zaoral (senior) who claimed the final spot on the podium in a time of 13m36. The minor placings were hard fought with small groups of swimmers battling tenaciously with each other content to gain the upper hand over rivals knowing they would gain more points in the long haul contest which is the Czech cup. First woman home was Vlasta Cudanova in 15th place which she grabbed in a sprint finish with two male competitiors, proving her battling qualities yet again.
At last....the finish!
The 750m again went the way of PK Zabreh as Denisa Haltmarova, who at 17 was far younger than any of her rivals, led from start to finish. The winning time was 9m24 and the winning margin was 46 seconds which really was quite impressive in the reasonably fast flowing river. PK Zabreh might be small in numbers and the club were represented by just the two swimmers at Hradec Kralove, but they both won their respective races! Some other clubs, admittedly with larger numbers would be delighted with a strike rate even 10% of this. There were more good performances in this 750m as Radomir Suchopa of Fides Brno took second place and Michael Stepan of 1.PKO was a clear third in a vey respectable 11m 36. The second woman to the line Daniela Nemcikova of DSFM was also the last of all the 17 finishers in 15m41.
The other shorter distances were marred by confusion and unsporting behaviour at the start of the 250m which led to 3 disqualifiactions. It was just one of those things but made all the more unfortunate by the fact that there were several young novice winter swimmers taking part in what could have been a fantastic sprint downstream. As it was the long drawn out peleton was a great spectacle for the crowds of onlookers gathered on the banks and the bridge.
Eventually racing came to an end and the weather forecast for the coming week was now the most important thing, after of course a cup of tea, a plate of hot food and a beer. If you are a cold water swimming connoisseur then that forecast is simply manna from heaven as the prediction is snow, ice, frost, freezing temperatures and then more of the same for the forseeable future. Bring on the visit to the Bolevecky pond in Plzen known for its clean and incredibly cold water.
Denisa Haltmarova in splendid isolation
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