On Saturday a small contingent of Swindon Dolphin Swimmers headed to the TriFerris BIG Cotswold Swim at Waterland Outdoor Pursuits (Lake32). This is one of the last open water races on the season calendar, and with a team prize up for grabs seemed the perfect excuse to get back into the lake for one last time this season. All of the dolphin swimmers entered the one mile distance event, so they were eligible to compete for the team prize.
Conditions were fine and sunny in the morning, with the lake temperature around 17 degrees. However this nice weather meant the open water skills were tested to the limit as the low sun made sighting on a key part of the course tricky and disorientating.
Stuart Gibbs was the first Dolphin swimmer home, heading for the run out finish and pulling off a fantastic 2nd place overall and 1st AG placing.
The podiums did not stop there with Sarah Forbes having a fantastic swim and also grabbed a 2nd place AG finish and 7th Lady overall. Kerry Rutherford finished her fantastic season in Open Water with another podium, coming 2nd in her AG and only beaten by the overall ladies winner. Tamara Turchet finished the Dolphin Podium positions with a 3rd place AG finish, with Jo Blount coming home with a brilliant top ten AG finish, swimming the event without a wetsuit.
The 6th Member of the Dolphin team, Dean Fouracre had a cracking swim himself and a fantastic race developed between him and Marlborough Penguins swimmer Mike Wootten. Dean used his open water skills to draft his way into the finish and just pipped Mike over the line on the run out. Dean finished with a top 10 AG placing, coming home with a fantastic time in 9th Place.
After a fantastic morning of top results the Swindon Dolphin team were in contention for the team prize, but sadly the team were just pipped to the post coming a respectable second place. Thanks to Tri Ferris Promotions for yet another fantastic and fun event.
So that’s our open water season over now, it’s been fun but a strange one with weather in (what is usually) the height of summer playing havoc with our taster sessions and original Open Water Club Championships date.
As we build the youngsters of the club into skilled open water swimmers we would love to see more of our older swimmers and masters coming through and competing in the open water next year. Keep an eye open for more events to participate in next season and hopefully more lake training sessions …as long as the weather behaves.
See you pool and lakeside
Jason Tait
Open Water Lead Coach
