What a day. Wet on the ground, wet in the water. Wet I tell you. This was wet of Angela’s Ashes proportions. But what a great occasion for all of us. Swimmer of the day was George Cselko, who displayed true grit and stamina from start to finish in the 10km race. Chief accolade goes to Norm the Shark Jones who supported all the Serpentine swimmers.
The biggest Serpentine cheers were for George as a big group of Serpentine swimmers roared George on as he exited the water. But Norm stood by in the rain for the best part of four hours; legend. As we passed the drinks pontoon, it was uplifting to hear Norm. He applauded, encouraged, smiled and cheered all of us as we made our way as a few of one thousand swimmers at Eton’s Dorney Lake today. Thanks so much Norm. It was also a pleasure to see Sakura Adams join us at the finish.
There were many achievements today. Rod Newing swam further than he had previously managed, covering a credible 7.5kms. Four English Channel solo aspirants underlined their base fitness levels acquired from the winter plod to finish well. We wish Sam Robertson, James Norton, Stuart Bowman and Dani Lobo well when their swims from England to France happen later this summer. Stuart was 15 minutes faster than the same swim in 2013. Dani Lobo achieved his swim in a pain free fashion to finally complete a 10km race in cold water. John Tierney [that’s me] knocked a lot of time off his previous best swim for ten kms. In 2013, I swam my first 10km race in the warm Italian sea in a time of four hours 27 minutes. Thanks to stroke technique work with Ray Gibbs at swim canary wharf and with Alessandro Pilati in Italy, I knocked one hour and eight minutes off my previous personal best. Happy days and that is a booster for my Lake Zurich swim of 27kms in August this year.
Sarah Wiethoff was pleased with her swim. Her time was the fastest of all the swimmers in the 10km race. The organisers placed Sarah, and by extension, Serpentine SC top of the list in the results column. However, Sarah completed 5kms and is wondering how she can adjust the records to be correct as she didn’t have time to enter the 5km race and joined the 10km race for as long as she felt comfortable. She didn’t receive £10,000 in prize money or a gold medal, so our club success and Sarah’s is currently digital.
There can be great pride in a name for the present and future as 14 year old Felicity Challinor swam at a speedy 18 and a half minutes per km. Felicity has more English Channel relays planned. Mark Faure Walker was lightning quick in the ‘sprint’ distance of 3kms. he has clearly lost none of his speed since his English Channel solo in 2013. The Luckhurst boys learnt a lot from today’s swim and I’m sure they will return in 2015 for another crack at Eton. Finally, I discovered talking to the Eton ‘Pops’ in the cafe where we had lunch, that Nick Adams’ nickname in Eton College is “Fish”. Well I never…
225 swimmers in wetsuit and without wetsuit took part in the 10km race. Sam Robertson was 68th overall. James finished 111th overall. John Tierney was 156th overall. Jackson Carroll was 163rd. Dani Lobo was 189th.
246 swimmers competed in the 5km race. Robert Macmillan was 34th overall. Bea Heller was 118th. Andrew Millar was 181st. Michael Shaw was 235th.
386 swimmers took part in the 3km race. Mark Faure Walker was a very impressive 17th overall.
293 swimmers contested the 1.5km race. Richard Parasram was 38th overall and Jeremy Cavanagh was 170th.
In the 750m race, Felicity Challinor was 36th of 111 swimmers.
A happy day of swimming for all, with personal bests for everyone in terms of times and also of distances.
If you really want to dig deep, then click onto the site for a play with age categories. Here.
Below are the results from Results Base - with a couple of technicalities.
10km race
Pos. Bibno. Finish time Participant Category Club Pace
1 250 2:50:38 Sami Robertson (M) 30-34 Serpentine SC 17:03 min/km
2 289 3:05:55 James Norton (M) 50-54 Serpentine SC 18:35 min/km
3 269 3:17:54 Stuart Bowman (M) 40-44 Serpentine SC 19:47 min/km
4 286 3:19:49 John Tierney (M) 45-49 Serpentine SC 19:58 min/km
5 260 3:21:28 Jackson Carroll (M) 35-39 Serpentine SC 20:08 min/km
6 265 3:41:12 Dani Lobo (M) 40-44 Serpentine SC 22:07 min/km
7 231 4:19:50 George Cselko (M) 50-54 Serpentine SC 25:59 min/km
- 220 3:12:24 (7.5km) Rod Newing (M) 60-64 Serpentine SC 19:14 min/km (wetsuit)
- 239 1:51:07 (5.0km) Sarah Wiethoff (F) 25-29 Serpentine SC 11:06 min/km
- 291 1:04:24 (2.5km) John Luckhurst (M) 50-54 Serpentine SC 06:26 min/km
5km race
Bibno. Finish time Participant Category Club Pace
1 405 1:16:17 Robert Macmillan(M) 20-24 Serpentine SC 15:15 min/km
2 556 1:35:20 Beatrice Heller (F) 25-29 Serpentine SC 19:04 min/km
3 563 1:47:24 Andrew Millar (M) 25-29 Serpentine SC 21:28 min/km
4 564 2:32:46 Michael Shaw (M) 25-29 Serpentine SC 30:33 min/km
- 560 Alan Luckhurst (M) Junior Serpentine SC - min/km
3km race
Pos. Bibno. Finish time Participant Category Club Pace
1 1093 47:10 Mark Faure Walker(M) 35-39 Serpentine SC 15:43 min/km
2 1132 1:16:31 Esther Huntington(F) 25-29 Serpentine SC 25:30 min/km
1.5km race
Pos. Bibno. Finish time Participant Category Club Pace
1 906 25:53 Richard Parasram(M) 25-29 Serpentine SC 17:15 min/km
2 742 33:14 Jeremy Cavanagh (M) 50-54 Serpentine SC 22:09 min/km
0.75km race
Pos. Bibno. Finish time Participant Category Club Pace
1 706 13:52 Felicity Challinor(F) Youth Serpentine SC 18:29 min/km
[John Tierney]
