Swimmers As Heroes, From Asia To Europe
Colin Hill, head of the Great Swim and guest speaker at the Global Open Water Swimming Conference, took part in the Byron Swim Festival, a 5K swim from Asia to Europe.Colin placed first in 1 hour and 27 minutes. He had a great review of the event, “It was a tough swim. The tides were strong.”
“It felt like [we were going] the wrong direction for a lot of the swim, pretty choppy. About 15 out of the 158 swimmers didn’t wear wetsuits as it was 13°C (55.4°F). SwimTrek, the organizer, made everyone swim either 45 minutes without a wetsuit or 30 minutes with a wetsuit in a test swim the day before.”
“Besides the swim where 150 people entered a rather choppy Hellespont, it was a great festival [celebrating the 200th anniversary of Lord Byron’s first swim’.“With talks from the current Lord Byron – and Charles Sprawson, author of Haunts of the Black Masseur – the Swimmer as Hero, it was something to remember.“
A video of the race can be seen here, showing Colin finishing first.
Copyright © 2010 by Open Water Source
Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. 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), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.
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