Milan Stencl of PK Zabreh holds a nice streamline shape in the 3c water
After the drama of the previous week in Hradec the Ticha Orlice was flowing fast enough that there was no chance of anything but a downstream ride. The water may have been just 3c but quite frankly the 750m test held no fears for the experienced winter swimmers although judging by the expressions on exiting the water this point is debatable!
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Writing about an event that took place over 1 month ago isn’t easy but in the case of this winter swimming competition it stuck in the mind (& the fingertips!).
A mild winter, but more importantly for the Labe river very little precipitation meaning less water and therefore a slow rate of flow. 15m/minute is the cut off point in Czech winter swimming and if the flow rate exceeds this then it is deemed unsafe to swim upstream and therefore the contest will be downstream only. The informationn that filtered through on the day was that this was the first time in the 40 year history of the contest that it had been held in still water conditions. Nobody knoew what to expect and this made for an interesting event.
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.
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Sometimes in sport puzzling things happen. Cricket is a good example where a match can be decided by “the duckworth-lewis method” if rain interrupts play. To a lesser extent in football a team leading by 2 goals in the second leg of a cup competition may resort to extreme defensive tactics to preserve their lead. A more abstract yet common example would be snooker where players avoid easy pots opting for ”safety” in a long term strategy.
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From January 20th – 22nd Jurmala in Latvia will host the world winter swimming championships.
A beautiful location on the baltic sea coast and just a short distance from Riga international airport it is sure to be a bone chillingly exciting 3 days with a variety of disciplines on offer from just a dip in the pool to a 450m endurance swim for those participants that have the relevant ice water experience to attemp such a swim. It will be cold, with water temperature probably just above freezing.
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Last year after an early autumn snowfall in the Czech/Moravian highlands the water in the Pavov swimming pond near Jihlava had colled to 5.4c and an awful gale was blowing. It was a soothing thought for the psyche when preparing to face the same pond this year with a temperature of 7.5c. No sign of any gales, just a pleasant autumnal day, the bright colours of the trees in stark contrast to the dull water of the pond making a nice scene.
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Long distance open water swimming takes place during the summer months with an average water temperature of 18-22c. Occasionally the water temperature can drop in a smaller body of water after a period of cold weather or heavy rainfall. 16c is quite cold when the swimmer has been in the water for 2 hours. Hence one of the difficulties that swimming across the English channel presents is upwards of 10 hours in 16/17c water. FINA, the governing body actually doesn’t allow competitions when the water drops below 15c.
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