Early morning on Sunday 3rd July saw in excess of 500 intrepid swimmers take to the River Thames in the second event in the 2011 Speedo Open Water Swim Series.
The 1500m event saw junior athlete Daniel Shorthouse take the win in 00.18.10 with fellow junior Sidney Howes second in 00.18.54. Third place went to Richard Gilbert in 00.20.36 with elite triathlete and 2012 Olympic hopeful Hollie Avil coming home fourth and first female. Avil was taking part with her father Mark as part of a BBC special on the Olympics. Mark, who used to be a rugby player before taking up triathlon after much encouragement from his daughter, finished in a very creditable 00.27.52. Second lady was youth athlete Laura Fenwick in 00.21.58 with Daisy Bond, yet another junior, taking third in 00.21.58. With so many of the podium places in the two shorter distances being taking by youth and junior athletes, there can be no doubt that the future of the sport is alive and well!
The main event of the day was the 3 kilometre swim, and competition was fierce at the front end of the race with less than a minute covering the first three positions. Donal Harte pulled away to take the win in 0.37.53 with Joel Winter coming home just five seconds later in 0.37.58 for second place. Third went to Matt Baker, pipping Derek Sansom to the last podium place by just three seconds in 0.38.28. First lady home was Claire Liggins in 0.41.39 with Sheila Jansen second in 0.43.53 and Olga Fuzesi third in 0.44.14.
The next race in the Speedo Open Water Series is the Hampton Court Swim, which will see around 2,000 swimmers tackle the 2.2 mile, downstream, point-to-point course from Hampton Court to Kingston Bridge.
