Usually held a week later, this year the contest had been moved back after the the early onset of winter in 2010 led to the contest being cancelled for technoical reasons – namely unsafe/unworkable ice conditions. No danger of that this year with air temperatures so faronly negative through the night. However, the wind was blowing and the water temperature was officially recorded at 3.7c although it was reported as low as 3.2c in a place.
This meant that the fairweather winter swimmers were now firmly enclosed in chlorine leaving only a fe hardy souls to do battle with the elements. No slur against the others as winter swimming certainly isn’t for everyone. But it is good to remember that when the cold sets in and the water gets down below 4c it really is tough to go to the water. In the Czech Republic it really is unique with these weekly middle distance races in cold water providing a nice adrenaline rush and healthy competition and for others simply an opportunity for a relaxing cold swim without racing. But for everyone taking part its a pleasant meeting with friends.
Perfect conditions although there was some wind which made the waiting a bit chilly but everything went off without a glitch. 19 lined up for the 1000m and 18 scored points with the exception of channel swimmer Petr Mihola of Fides Brno who was so desperate to claim points for his club that he ran around other swimmers in the shallow water at the start to get a better position. needless to say he was disqualified! In the race it was a battle for first place for both circuits between Denisa haltmarova and Milan Stencl, both of PK Zabreh. Eventually Stencl took control and came home in 13.33, 5 seconds ahead of his younger teammate. the times were quick with the final swimming clocking in at 17.22 leading dome to suggest it wasn’t a true kilometre. The author is reminded of a similar situation where he was officially recorded with a time of 48minutes for the 3km when in reality he had been trying to break 1 hour for this distance!
There were further races over 750, 500 and 250m and also a 100m exhibition swim so all levels of winter swimmers were catered for as usual. There really is no better way to spend a saturday lunchtime during winter and at this point I am going to reccommend watching the documentary film “Winter swimming”. It has just been released on DVD on this website and you can buy it here Meanwhile more articles and videos featuring swimming in freezing cold water coming soon.
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