250m start
The 16th round of the 2010/11 Czech cup for winter swimming was held at Pardubice in the Eastern Bohemia region. Last year the same event was accompanied by 30cm of snow providing a glorious setting. This year the air temperature had got up to around 5c and the big thaw had just started after one month of frost, ice and snow. As the participants in the 750m walked over a bridge on the way to the start one onlooker was heard to remark “oh, its warm.” An amusing comment, yes it is much warmer than it has been but with the water 2c warmth would seem a long way away for a winter swimmer once immersed in the Elbe River on this dreary January Saturday.
Actually not much to report about the swimming itself, it was enjoyed by 57 swimmers and although part of the Czech Cup it was without timing and therefore worth few points. The Elbe flowed quickly and the quickest finished the 750m in around 8 minutes and even the slowest took just 13 minutes.
Winter swimmers watched from the bridge
Interestingly the youngest swimmer was 8 year old Vojislav Sterba. He was accompanied by his sister Lenka Sterbova who defeated the English Channel last year aged just 16 and their father Michael Sterba, the hugely successful long distance swimming trainer. Pardubice has been linked with long distance swimming since Jan Novak became the second Czechoslovak to swim across the English channel in 1971. Lida Jelinkova followed in the 1980′s and now we have the Sterba’s. Ironically, Pardubice has just lost a public swimming pool. Even for the toughest open water swimmers a pool is a neccessity if you are competing internationally and aiming for the olympics.
Back to the winter swimming and next week sees a big event at Nachod as it is also the 40th running of their contest and a celebration is planned. Regarding the swimming and nature will have a big say here as if there is too much water the contest will be downstream making it considerably easier and certainly not the most difficult race of the season as it has been in past years. Some cold water swimmers will say, “thank god for that”, others will mutter “bring on the frost, snow and ice” but perhaps it is better to simply shrug the shoulders, marvel at the beauty and unpredictability of nature and say “what will be, will be.”
Don’t forget to follow the progress of our winter swimming film here
No mistaking the 500m start
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