The Daily News Of Open Water Swimming

To educate, entertain, and enthuse those who venture beyond the shore

Newsletter

Random News

Stars At The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Swim




Courtesy of Vasanti Niemz, Lake Zürich, Switzerland.

18 swimmers and teams had their own boat or kayak in the 29th annual Sri Chinmoy Marathon Swim, a 26 km marathon swim from Rapperswil to Zürich across Lake Zürich on August 7th. “This is how you can always get a guaranteed entry for this highly coveted event with limited space,” said Vasanti Niemz. “Bring your own boat and helpers.”

Only once in 29 years did the weather not cooperate for the 26 km Sri Chinmoy Marathon Swim Rapperswil-Zurich. This time again, Friday showed heavy showers and thunderstorm, but come Saturday, the weather settled and the quaint little Swiss town of Rapperswil at the eastern end of Lake Zürich welcomed 47 solo and 48 relay swimmers from all over the world – representing 12 nationalities – with one common goal: To swim 26 km and reach Zurich within the official cutoff of 12 hours.

The start had excellent conditions. It was calm tranquility across the lake that changed into a little bit of headwind in the afternoon, including more waves from motor boats and ferries on the lake. The water was a comfortable 22-23°C under sunny skies. Eight solo swimmers and 1 team either gave up or did not make the cut-off time at the halfway point in Meilen or in Zürich.

First to finish was the duo team Rahel und Roger with Roger Bommer and Rahel Küng in 6 hours 31 minutes. Only four minutes later the first solo swimmer, Swiss Till Mesmer, reached the finish in 6 hours 35 minutes, faster than the first neoprene swimmer.

Steffen Hartig from Germany broke the masters wetsuit record with a time of 6 hours 43 minutes to break the men’s main category held by Luis José Gilarranz Dominguez from Spain. Hartig, a masters swimmer, was faster than the main category – which happens frequently.

Fastest woman soloist bioprene and overall was Georgina Kovacs from Australia in 6 hours 59 minutes. Second in the overall women’s division was American Anna DeLozier who broke Barbara Held‘s record in the masters woman bioprene category in 7 hours 39 minutes.

The swimmers’ faces at the finish were beaming as usual and the rich vegetarian buffet from tofu to pancakes and great desserts loved by all,” said Niemz.

The lake marathon swim came into existence when Prafulla Nocker who now lives in Austria was a prospective English Channel swimmer from the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team. She did not make it across the English Channel in 1986. Prafulla missed the tide and would have had to swim at least six more hours. She felt fine and wanted to continue, but the boat pilot ordered her out.

In those days, pilots probably were not used to 24-27 hour swims. To make up for her failure, Prafulla then went on to swim the Lake Zürich one way, and arriving in Rapperswil at night and still not out of power, decided to turn round and swim back. The next year she not only successfully swam the English Channel, but also organised the first Lake Zürich marathon swim for the public.”

Results of Men 16-49 years (Record: 1993 Maarouf Mohamed 5:51:41)
1 Till Mesmer Till (Switzerland) 6:35:35
2 Paul Humenik (USA) 6:55:13
3 Andy Müller (Australia) 7:38:32
4 Sean Deschamps (Australia) 8:41:07
5 Brian Fergusson (Australia) 8:49:59
6 Silvan Hafner (Switzerland) 8:53:47
7 Christopher Jordinson (Great Britain) 9:13:07
8 Steve Brearey (Great Britain) 9:22:53
9 Dirk Dehmer (Germany) 10:06:58
10 Robert Howlett (Great Britain) 10:17:04
11 Daniel Lobo (Spain) 10:21:38
DNF Thomas Pesch (Germany) 24 km
DNF Kevin Dennehy (Ireland) 20 km
DNF Ross Wisby (Great Britain)
DNF Marcus Fell (Germany)

Results of Women 16-49 years (Record: 2001 Krüger Nadja 5:59:43)
1 Georgina Kovacs (Australia) 6:59:31
2 Lynne Macgregor (Switzerland) 9:08:22
3 Sandra O’Connor (Ireland) 9:34:20
4 Geraldine Treacher (Great Britain) 9:50:37
5 Sara Marley (USA/Ireland) 10:18:16
DNF Sarah Tunnicliffe (Great Britain) 20.5 km
DNF Tatiana Kvasova (Russia)

Results of Men over 50 years (Record: 2008 Ned Denison 7:36:13)
1 Paschal Phelan (Ireland) 8:30:51
2 Scott Rodger (Great Britain) 8:44:50
3 Jürg Ammann (Switzerland) 9:17:07
4 Adrian Russell (Great Britain) 10:46:59

Results of Women over 50 years (Record: 2013 Barbara Held Barbara 8:10:50)
1 Anna DeLozier (USA) 7:39:59
2 Kate Robarts (Great Britain) 11:45:17

Results of Men with wetsuit ages 16 to 49 years (Record: 2009 Roland Denzler 6:20:00)
1 Luis José Gilarranz Dominguez (Spain) 6:59:39
2 Sebastian Gisbert (Germany) 7:47:43
3 Martin Keller (Switzerland) 8:17:58
4 Uzi Teshuva (Israel) 8:33:11
5 Jürgen Feuersenger (Germany) 9:05:53
6 Marc White (Switzerland) 9:34:50
7 Matthias Schmidlin (Germany) 9:42:17
8 Pataka Spacek (Czech Republic) 10:21:07
DNF Falko Toetzke (Germany)

Results of Women with wetsuit ages 16 to 49 years (Record: 2011 Sigloch Anja 6:56:57)
1 Conny Prasser (Germany) 8:35:27

Results of Men over 50 years with wetsuit (Record: 2010 Barry Adams 7:20:27)
1 Steffen Hartig (Germany) 6:43:22
2 Dan Silberstein (Israel) 9:11:51
3 Shlomo Amitai (Israel) 9:13:07
4 Christoph Schlegel (Germany) 9:19:12
5 Bruno Stutz (Switzerland) 9:30:51
6 Thilo Klein (Germany) 9:35:00
7 Johan Van Steen (Netherland) 11:03m:07
8 Steve Berger (Great Britain) 11:35:03
DNF Marek Tarnowski (Poland) 19.5 km

Results of Relay Teams without wetsuits (Record: 1996 A. Wilde / Th. Stolz / P. Büchse 5:21:39)
1 Where’s Waldo Team 6:49:11 (Chris Waldhart, Jonathan Haines, Shaun Jessop)
2 Perth City Fast Laydeez 9:08:49 (Jackie Gardiner, Katy Welch, Maelle Bourdais)
3 Birch Team 9:36:03 (Claire Birch, Luke Birch, Jamie McAlpine-Leny)
4 Brownies Team 10:06:50 (Katharina Braun, Gian Braun)
5 Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team 10:42:47 (Kallol Linke, Harkara Urmoneit, Sukinkar Pötzsch)
6 Fratelli Team 10:58:07 (Martin Priego Wood, Gary Carter)
DNF Siracusas (Judith O’Driscoll, Elisabeth Davey)

Results of Relay Teams with wetsuit (Record: 2005 K.Kulik / S. Keller / C. Rothböck 5:55:16)
1 Rahel und Roger 6:31:07 (Roger Bommer, Rahel Küng)
2 Team Tempus Capital 6:52:09 (Martin Herrmann, Marco Moser)
3 Swim TEAM Siggingen 7:28:40 (Mike Leoni, Ursula Müller, Thierry Hafner)
4 Flippers bliss 8:15:51 (Christoph Achermann, Sabine Konrad)
5 KSV Coaches 8:25:39 (Caroline Von Allmen, Fabienne Christen, Pascale Rebsamen)
6 Triathlon Club Zürich 8:49:35 (Marc Spieler, Lea Amalo)
7 Twins Triathlon Team 9:17:57 (Peter Lüdicke, Jürgen Lüdicke)
8 Trinations 9:21:20 (Simon Frei, Nicolas Berlinger, Tillmann Schulze)
9 TRIZO 9:44:43 (Enrico Graf, Yvonne Graf, Michael Schlunegger)
10 Peak Performance 9:53:27 (Penny Marshall, Kirsty Staunton, Eamon Staunton)
11 FISH 9:56:56 (Birgit Spitznagel, Markus Stöcklin)

Copyright © 2016 by World Open Water Swimming Association

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top