Courtesy of Vasanti Niemz, Lake Zürich, Switzerland.
46 solo swimmers and 18 relay teams representing 18 nations started early on July 26th in Rapperswil, Switzerland to compete in the annual International Self-Transcendence Marathon-Schwimmen.
“Our goal was to reach Zürich within the 12-hour cutoff by swimming nonstop or as a relay,” said veteran Vasanti Niemz of Germany about the 26.4 km course. “The start of the solo swimmer heat was at 7 am, followed by the relay teams at 7:15 am. The weather conditions were excellent very windy with storm warnings the day before, the lake was now calm and peaceful, with just a bit of chop for some time after Meilen, the water temperature a comfortable 24°C with an air temperature of 23°C.
It was sunny in the morning and then turned overcast with the sun peeking out here and there again before some rain close to the cutoff time. Only three solo swimmers did not reach the halfway cutoff in Meilen/Küsnacht at 6:30 hours and had to give up.
The first swimmers to finish at the Badi Tiefenbrunnen in Zürich were the Swiss relay team Uusschwümme from Swimclub Thalwil with Christian Tschudi, Till Mesmer und Nadine Zürcher in 6 hours 14 minutes. Jason Gill from Glasgow was the next to arrive as the fastest solo wetsuit swimmer in 6 hours 52 minutes.
The fastest solo swimmer sans wetsuit was American John Zemaitis from Swim Neptune/Scottsdale (Arizona) in 7 hours 40 minutes. Friderike Wachs from Germany set a new meeting record in the women’s wetsuit masters category with a 7 hour 53 minute traverse of Lake Zurich. The fastest woman to swim bioprene was British swimmer Jo Yetman of Portsmouth Triathlon Club in 8 hours 21 minutes.
Finisher faces were beaming as always, every finisher received a medal and a flower garland, the award ceremony was colorful and the huge vegetarian buffet was delicious as usual. Knowing there is some great food waiting always helps to make it across the last almost never-ending stretch from Küsnacht to the finish.”
Results of Men 16 to 39 years
1 John Zemaitis (U.S.A.) 7:40:23
2 Joseph Zemaitis (U.S.A.) 7:55:38
3 Oliver Kramer (Germany) 8:04:53
4 Rory Scallan (Great Britain) 8:55:08
5 Ion Lazarenco (Moldova/Ireland) 9:08:43
6 Theodosis Charalampos (Greece)9:25:12
7 Michael Garnett (Great Britain) 9:26:06
8 Nicolas Berlinger (Chile/Swiss) 10:26:37
9 Jackson Carroll (Australia) 11:16:53
DNF Carsten Polzin (Germany)
Results of Men over 40 years
1 Martyn Webster (Great Britain) 8:10:47
2 Gary Brickley (Great Britain) 8:21:45
3 Dietmar Zilz (Germany) 8:59:00
4 Stefan Schyrer (Germany) 9:20:42
5 Cray Patrick (Great Britain) 9:33:39
6 Martin Hofmann (Germany) 9:58:07
7 Thomas Van Every (Great Britain) 10:06:35
8 Philippe Fort (France) 10:06:55
9 Alexis Puhan (Switzerland) 10:11:57
10 Michael Latham (Great Britain) 11:07:55
11 Mark Hannigan (Ireland) 11:40:47
12 Dylan Haughton (Great Britain) 11:57:39
DNF Steve Petford (Great Britain)
Results of Men with wetsuit 16 to 39 years
1 Felix Lenz (Germany) 7:59:08
2 Josh Azulay (America) 9:13:07
Results of Men with wetsuit over 40 years
1 Jason Gill (Great Britain) 6:52:41
2 Davide Guglielmi (Italy) 7:44:53
3 Cedric Freyling (Belgium) 8:09:16
4 Alessandro Caffi (Italy) 8:15:58
5 Peter Tomasek (Switzerland ) 9:46:07
6 Marcus Fell (Germany) 9:48:20
7 Wiatr Wlodzimierz (Poland) 10:52:55
8 Pataka Spacek (Czech Republic) 11:15:40
DNF Christoph Schlegel (Germany)
Results of Women 16 to 39 years
1 Jo Yetman (Great Britain) 8:21:31
2 Birgit Kleber (Germany) 8:36:10
3 Abhejali Bernardova (Czech Republic) 8:37:39
4 Varada Dharmadhikari (India) 10:03:21
5 Tejas Shankaran (India) 10:04:54
Results of Women over 40 years
1 Judith Wendler (Germany) 9:41:59
2 Vasanti Niemz (Germany) 10:19:39
Results of Women with wetsuit 16 to 39 years
1 Barbara Postal (Italy) 10:02:47
2 Tamara Maurer (Switzerland) 10:52:55
Results of Women with wetsuit over 40 years
1 Friderike Wachs (Germany) 7:53:11
Results of Open Relay Teams
1 Uusschwümme 6:14:43 (Christian Tschudi Till Mesmer, Nadine Zürcher)
2 Aqua Divas 6:37:41 (Melissa Cave, Andrea Ferguson, Elizabeth Denyer)
3 Claire and Hannah’s Excellent Adventure 6:51:49 (Hannah Monaghan, Claire Angyal)
4 Team Pelican 7:18:14 (Barnaby Rudd, Selena Burgess, Charlie Baxter)
5 Oiseau Libre Young 8:36:25 (Eve Gaillard, Anne Gomis Marie, Oliver Desaleux)
6 Jersey Sea Swimmers 8:39:45 (Graeme Lowe, Katherine Lowe, Melanie Glendenning)
7 never enough 8:39:59 (Thomas Gloor, Roman Rölli, Thomas Läubli)
8 pt – Lisa – Zürich 8:44:49 (Paul Tannahill, Lisa Williams)
9 The Freestylers 9:13:52 (Catherine Firth, Emily Firth, Anthony Hodges)
10 PluSport 9:32:19 (Monika Tarnutzer, Katharina Braun, Gian Braun)
11 The Crazy Old Couple 9:52:17 (Susan Coombes, Martin Coombes)
12 Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team Germany 10:41:27 (Kallol Linke, Harkara Urmoneit, Sukinkar Pötzsch)
Results of Relay Teams with wetsuit
1 SiClaud 7:06:03 (Silke Nevermann, Claude Fleischmann)
2 Lokomotive Leipzig 7:16:19 (Dirk Schiffner, Kathleen Zacharias, Dirk Bartholomäus)
3 Born to Swim 7:32:27 (Umberto D’Angelo, Rosalba Ferrari, Marco Della Casa)
4 Gfrörlis 8:22:30 (Evelyne Szalai, Franziska Stettler)
5 The Last-Minute-Laties 8:40:59 (Hannes Raschle, Marion Bodmer, Patrick Raschle)
6 swimming love 9:05:07 (Luzia Koulouris, Christoph Clases)
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