Fergal Somerville Inducted In Hall of Fame – Marathon Swimming Ireland
Courtesy of Ned Denison, Hall of Fame – Marathon Swimming Ireland.
56-year-old Fergal Somerville from Dublin was among a number of Irish luminaries voted into the Hall of Fame – Marathon Swimming Ireland in its Class of 2020.
Somerville joined Conor Gunn, Owen O’Keefe, Colm O’Neill, Frances Thornton Memorial Galway Bay Swim, and Imelda Lynch in the Hall of Fame – Marathon Swimming Ireland.
The newest members joined the Class of 2019 (Anne-Marie Ward, Grainne Gunn, Ion Lazarenco Tiron, Ned Denison, Stephen Millar, Sandycove Island Swimmers) and Class of 2018 (Chris Bryan, Lisa Cummins, Kieran Fitzgerald, Jack McClelland, Deirdre Ward, Eilís Burns, Martin Cullen, Brian Meharg, and Quinton Nelson).
Somerville was recently honored by the Ice Swimming Hall of Fame as an Honor Contributor (Administrator) in the Class of 2020. As a credit to the scope of his talents and accomplishments, Somerville has also completed crossings of both the 33.5 km English Channel (12 hours 40 minutes) and 35 km North Channel as well as two Ice Miles (28:49 in 2014 in 4.40°C water and 28:50 in 2014 in 4.60°C water).
His North Channel crossing set the record for the earliest swim when he completed the 35 km channel in 12 hours 21 minutes on June 16th – after the coldest winter in Ireland in 62 years with the average water temperature of 9ºC.
He also pioneered two marathon swims in the Aran Islands: from Inis Meáin to Connemara and Round Inis Meáin and two marathon swims in Dublin, 26 km from Howth to Skerries in 6 hours 12 minutes, and a two-way crossing of Dublin Bay in 2012.
He received the 2016 Sheena Paterson Spirit of Open Water Swimming Award from the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association and organizes the Eastern Bay Invitational International Ice Mile Swim.
For more information, visit the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association website here.
The formal induction ceremony to honor Somerville will be held on February 29th 2020 in Kinsale, Co. Cork in conjunction with the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association Awards (register here).
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