Ice Milers Show Warmth
Courtesy of Fergal Somerville at Cork Distance Week, Ireland.
The enchanting Sandycove Island, Kinsale, Co. Cork in Ireland calls open water swimmers from around the world to Cork Distance Week, a week of swimming, training and creating lifelong friendships. On Saturday, the first swim of the camp organised by Ned Denison, and International Ice Swimming Association Executive Member, a number of international Ice Milers gathered to join with the camp and share their experiences.
This group also had the opportunity to congratulate Finbarr Hedderman (1st individual from Cork) and Sabrina Wiedmer (first Swiss swimmer) who became the 20th and 21st individuals to swim the North Channel in times of 12 hours 34 minutes and 10 hours 3 minutes respectively. Amazingly, that was Wiedmer’s first solo swim and she was guided across the channel by expert pilot Quinton Nelson, swimming from Donaghadee to Portpatrick.
Eight swimmers, ten International Ice Miles and world’s fastest woman over the distance. You can feel the warmth amongst the ice milers.
Eastern Swim Club has ran and invitational ice mile swim in Lough Dan in Co. Wicklow for the last two years and hopes to run the even again in 2015. Anyone interested can contact Fergal Somerville on fjs1@eircom.net. Ice swimming is an extreme sport which requires substantial training. Invitations are issued to swimmers who demonstrate consistent swimming in cold water in preparation for the event.
Photo shows back row (L-R) Ciaran Byrne, Finbarr Hedderman, Ned Denison and Jeremy Irvine, and front row (L-R) Haydn Welch, Sabrina Wiedmer, Carmel Collins and Fergal Somerville.
Copyright © 2014 by World Open Water Swimming Association
