Colwick Park Swim Report
The sun was shining, the water was clear (thank Goodness!) and the swimming was lovely.
The day started with the 1km swim and almost as soon as I arrived on site we had people wanting to enter on the day. Some people were entering an open water event for the first time, including one who had only initially turned up to watch, but decided to enter (he then thanked the swim team with donuts – just a hint to other swimmers!!). We also had another swimmer from the cast of Jersey Boys who came down for a swim before the show left Nottingham for Bradford.
In total we had 20 swimmers set off on the 1km swim – a number that we could grow even further once we have an online entry form for this swim. 12 of the 20 were wet-suited swimmers, so it’s great to welcome so many swimmers that haven’t traditionally entered BLDSA swims before.
The first swimmer home was Nick White in an incredible time of 11 minutes and 56 seconds. The first skins swimmer was Andrew Allum in 12.09, while Joanne Griffiths was the first female swimmer in a time of 14.06.
I hope all the 1km swimmers enjoyed it and will consider other swims on our calendar – many of which now also welcome wetsuit swimmers.
After the 1km swim we had the combined 3km/5km swim, with both events starting at the same time, but obviously doing a different number of laps of the 1km course each.
We unfortunately had a few people that had to pull out in the week before the event (and I hope that all health issues are ok), so we had 26 swimmers in the water for this event.
The first person out of the water was Ian Murray who won the 3km event in 42 minutes and 1 second. While the first female finisher and first junior home was Madeleine Adams in 47 minutes and 36 seconds.
Andrew Allum clearly enjoyed his 1km warm up swim as he was the first finisher in the 5km event in a time of 1 hour 3 minutes and 51 seconds. James Bridges and Paul Smith battled it out for second and third, with James just pipping Paul by a couple of seconds. They were closely followed by Georgia Amison as the first female swimmer home in 1 hour 8 minutes and 33 seconds.
My thanks to all swimmers, all race officials and especially to the safety crew. Good luck to next year’s new Swim Sec for Colwick Park.