Cold Half Is A Hot Topic In Hong Kong
“It was a great day [at the Cold Half in Hong Kong],” reported race director Doug Woodring. “We enjoyed incredibly good weather given that there was ice on the hills here last weekend for the first time in over 70 years.
The course was fast with relatively little wind, waves or currents.”
The athletes responded with fast swimming.
Almost all the course records were broken.
Aneekah Styles and Jemima Ridley broke their record in the women’s relay (previous 3:37:30), with a time of 3:23.46, down from their previous record of 3 hours 37 minutes.
“[Hong Kong Olympic 10K Marathon Swim hopeful] Singha Chau looked great. He very strong with a record time of 3 hours 4 minutes. The 16-year-old is aiming for the 2016 Rio Olympics and is the fastest in Hong Kong right now. He will be aiming to make the Portugal 10K Rio Qualifiers in June. Rob Hart took second place in 4 hours 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, as expected, Hungary’s marathon swimmer Attila Mányoki won the no-wetsuit category with a time of 4 hours 6 minutes [see photo below of award]. Jack Yim of Hong Kong was second in 4 hours 39 minutes flat.
40-year-old Edie Hu was the first woman to complete the Cold Half Extreme Marathon Swim. She did it without a wetsuit in a time of 4 hours 47 minutes.”
Copyright © 2015 by World Open Water Swimming Association
Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Daily News of Open Water Swimming and founder of WOWSA. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010).
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