11. Windermere

Windermere Championship 6th September 2007 Saturday September 1st 2007 saw the 51st Windermere Championship get under way. Thankfully, the forecast seemed to be set fair and the start of the swim went off smoothly, at just turned 9.00a.m. at Fell Foot Park. It was ably carried out, by our President, Andrew Wright and Councilor Ian Stewart, Chairman of South Lakeland District Council. Steady progress was made up the lake, with Chris Eynon, who at 17 years old was our youngest Gents entrant, taking the lead initially. Experienced contenders, in the form of Rebecca Lewis and Simon Lee, were not far behind and soon a real battle of tactics began to take shape. As time passed, we suffered a couple of retirements in the form of Chris Morris from Reading and Mark Blewitt or Redditch. Chris was our oldest gents competitor on the day and Mark was the only breaststroke entrant of the day. Neither of whom, i'm pleased to say, suffered any ill effects and we all hope that they will feel inclined to return and compete another day. After some 4 hours and 14 minutes, last year's Ladies Champion - Rebecca Lewis from Barrow in Furness, came storming in to the finish in superb form. This was a truly magnificent effort, since only a few days beforehand, Rebecca had managed to conquer the English Channel in a very creditable time of about nine and a half hours. So, congratulations and well done Rebecca. About ten minutes later, Chris Eynon came speeding in, taking 4 hrs and 23 minutes to win the Gents Championship, at his first attempt. Again, congratulations and well done to Chris. There then followed a steady stream of finishers, with Caroline Ball, a plucky 18 year old from the West Country taking second place in the Ladies followed by Simon Lee and Dee Llewellyn. It was great to see our youngest Lady competitor of the say, 17 year old Shawn Kiddie from DunDee, finish in just under five hours on her first attempt. We all hope that the prowess she has shown, will bring her back, to contend for the winner's place in the future. All in all we had 34 finishers out of 36 starters and to everyone, who took part, not just the successful ones, we say congratulations and well done. It is often said, that our chosen sport of Long Distance Swimming is a minority sport and therefore, not that many people know about it. Well, it has endured in it's present form for at least 50 years and in the past, we have enjoyed many thrills and spills on mighty Windermere, especially when we used to run International events and indeed, hosted the very first FINA World Cup. The year 2012 sees the Olympic Games coming to Britain and where are they talking of staging the Long Distance Swimming event? The Serpentine! Would you Adam and Eve it! May I say to everyone, who helped in any way whatsoever, to make the day a success, a big heartfelt THANK YOU. Without your support, it would not happen. See you all again, on Saturday September 6th 2008.

To see Photographs of the event click on the PHOTOS button

Results

© DL / BLDSA 2007