Maxifuel fuels Royal Windsor Swim - Race report

Posted at 13:24 on Jun 6, 2011 by Fuel Blog

Event: Royal Windsor River Swim - Thames Open Water Swim Series 2011
Date: 05-Jun-2011
Location: Barry Lane, Windsor, Berkshire, SL41QX   
Contact: F3 Events
Telephone: 07909915444
Website: f3 events

Royal Windsor Swim yesterday. With nearly 300 entries in taken online, it was a shame for many not to be able to attend and take part in this annual event, that was first set up by F3 Events last year and now forms part of the Thames Open Water Swim Series. The support that so many of you have shown in the regularity in taking part in an F3 Event, hopefully shows that we are doing something right and will look to grow and improve on the events each time they are run.

With an early start, due to the closure of the River formally until only 0915, we wanted to make sure that we started the waves off as close to the final participant notes times as possible.

The 950 metre event saw only a small number of participants take to the route, and everyone received a cheer when it started. We encourage absolutely every level of participant to take part and try an event. It was very encouraging to see some of the first few swimmers to exit the water to sit on the River bank bench all with big smiles on there faces, happy with the achievement in completing the distance in there target tiems. The overall winner Euan Godon, who is well known for his swimming experience, certainly gave the others a good benchmark to follow for future events in a very respectable time of 14min 24secs.

The next wave off was the 1.9KM distance, which saw over 140 entries before the event. Last years winner, Kevin Mitchell, was looking to hold onto his crown as the 2010 winner of the first ever Royal Windsor Swim. From the start, the field quickly spread out along the course, which meandered its way up the river, where the swimmers turned just after the motorway bridge, and in fact without even knowing it, turning accross the river in front of Michael Cane and Jimmy Pages, old house, next to Windsor Race Course. The swimmers had one of the most amazing views (if they stopped to look) with Windsor Castle, as the backdrop heading back towards the finish.

With a final burst over the last 200 metres, Kevin took another great victory and winner of the Xterra Wetsuit, Rucsac and other prizes provided from Maxifuel & Hire a Wetsuit.

Without realising it, the 3.8KM event was about to get under way, which had to take in two laps of the 1.9KM swim course, which also forms part of the same swim course for the Windsor Triathlon. This was the most popular distance for people to enter and expected swim times ranged from 47mins to just under 2 hours. Again it was great to see everyone take to the water. The Water Safety provided, as per all the F3 Events open water events, was being covered by Cloud 9 Pursuits and the Royal Windsor Lifeguards. With a very visible presence, this ensured that everyone could focus on there event and enjoy the experience.

It was difficult to work out which actual swimmer was in the lead after the first lap when spectating from the river bank, but it quickly became aparent that two training buddies, where neck and neck on the final lap and were racing down stream, whilst some of the swimmers had only just started there second lap. With only 200 metres to go Donal Harte broke away from Matt Malloy to take the overall victory in a highly respectable time of 47.41.

Also finishing in the top 10 was Hayley Morris, who is a local Windsor Resident who took the female overall win in a time of 54min 07 seconds and one of the youngest participants today, Jordan Sexton, finished in 4th place overall, hoping to get a top 3 finish and only just missing out. With so many swimming pool club members looking to take advantage of the growth in open water swimming, which is now officially an Olympic recognised sport, we are sure that Jordan and many other juniors will move through the open water swimming rankings in the future.

We also had lots of swimmers that took part today that were not wearing wetsuits, which makes the swim about 15 - 20% more difficult without a wetsuit. Many of them are either training for long distance open water championships, English Channel Crossing, or set up a challenge to raise money for a chosen charity, like Help for Heroes.

We are looking into the opportunity of providing prizes for non wetsuit swimmers and a strong suggestion of introducing a Clydesdale division, which is very popular abroad - watch this space.

ROYAL WINDSOR SWIM 1.9KM

If you are looking to improve your open water swimming, we have formed a partnership with two local lakes close to Windsor, that are the only lakes to provide Water Cover and Lifeguards at every session, the lakes are open, plus a fully marked out swim course.

Kevin Wallace from Bray Lake Swimming, has offered a FREE swim for anyone that entered the Royal Windsor Swim, if you bring along your entry confirmation to show at the entrance. The Swimming sessions are based at Bray Lake Watersports and 2.5 miles from the centre of Maidenhead and Windsor.