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27 Jan 2011

Cold Water Swimming Championships 2011

All Articles, Events Calender, News & Events, Swimming 3 Comments

Congratulations to everyone that took part in the Cold Water Swimming Championships 2011. Temperatures reaching highs of 3°C made for an extremely cold day at Tooting Bec but that didn’t stop 350 competitors braving the water and taking part in events such as the traditional “head up” breaststroke, the freestyle dash  and the 500 yard challenge.

Competitors travelled from all over the globe to the event which also hosted the the “Best Hat of the Day” contest and was equipped with a Finnish sauna and hot tub to enable athletes to recover, as well as a host of stalls and entertainment.

There were only two competitors in the 80 and over category (born 1931 or earlier), so Yvonne Wood won the Female Head Up Breaststroke and Cyril Wood won the Freestyle in their category.  Robin Hunter won the 70 and over (born 1932 to 1941) Head Up Breaststroke again he was the only competitor in that category.  Ellery McGowan was the winner of the Over 60 (born 1942 to 1951) Female Freestyle, beating off strong SLSC competition from Ann Brimelow and Pip Tunstill.

Both the winners of the under 20 breaststroke (born 1992 to 2001)  came from Newton Abbot SC (Chloe Kemp and Matt Robbins).  Connor Brodie continued that success for their club in the freestyle, but Claire Hayward (East Dorset OpenWater SC) took the freestyle honours for that age group.  Newton Abbot SC also came second in the relays behind Enfield Water Polo.  SLSC took gold and bronze in the over 180 combined age group.

Congratulations to Adam Stocks ‘The Greenhouse’  who won for ingenuity and inventiveness. Click here to see the photo.

So why is cold water swimming is becoming more and more popular?

Places such as Brighton, Bournemouth, Tenby and St Helier in Jersey have all hosted high profile festive beach plunges over the last month.

Benefits include:

  • Boosts your immune system
  • An all natural high
  • Gets your blood pumping
  • Improves your sex life
  • Burns calories

Read more at http://thenextchallenge.org/2010/02/cold-water-swimming/


  • http://www.extremewinterswimming.com Jack Bright

    It’s great psychological training amongst other things to swim in winter water, 4c and below.
    Its nice to enjoy nature however it comes. As the water gets warmer I swim longer distances.

  • http://www.extremewinterswimming.com Jack Bright

    It sounds like it was a lit of fun. I didn’t have time to go this year but maybe next time. 3c is a nice temperature for winter water.