Ireland 1km Ice Swimming Championship
Wild Water Armagh for the 2nd Irish IISA 1km championship
37 frozen swimmers braved the Icy waters at Wild Water Armagh for the 2nd Irish IISA 1km champ. 16 woman and 21 man swam in water temperature of 4.5C with wind chill factor dropping as low as -8c. The sun and the heavy snow alternated every heat and overall it was safe and fantastic event. World Record for Women was broken by Sabrina Weidmer from Switzerland who came 3rd overall and first in the women category at 13:58 minutes. Connor Turner from Ireland, first time 1km swimmer won the men category and first overall with 12:44 minutes. Connor is now ranked number two in the world after Petar Stoychev from Bulgaria.
The infrastructure and the safety was first class. With the Connor family who owns the Wild Water Armagh pool generously hosted the event with many local volunteers from Armagh and Newry looking after the swimmers and their safety. The heavy snow made the event look spectacular painting everything in a soft white blanket. Few new swimmers joined IISA Cold swimmer rank with their first 1km swim. The commitment and perseverance displayed by the new swimmers was nothing but admirable. The icy wind and the heavy snow can challenge most people just to go outdoors but the brave swimmers followed the MC Geraldine Fox clear instructions “take off your clothes and enter the water” and swam the course. In this environment it is not the only the fastest that win but the strong mind ones that haven’t got the speed and swim a 1km between 20minutes to 25 minutes spending almost double the time than the frozen water. It was amazing to see the people that not long ago stepped out their comfort zone to face their inner self and swim in the ICE. Well done brave frozen ones.
The recovery was done in Russian Tyumen style with wet hot towels and hot water followed by a sauna. The pixies in the recovery room worked around the clock from 8am to 7pm. Needless to say that the recovery area is another separate extreme event.
Well done to Wendy Figures from Great Britain for achieving a new age group world record with time of 16:51 minutes, Connor Turner who also achieved a world record in his age group and Gus Cooney from Ireland who achieved world record in his age group with time of 18:26 minutes, Gus is age group 65-69 years! The ice obviously keeps him young.
Christof “Wandi” Wandratsch from Germany, the current World Champion, came 2nd overall with time of 13:03 minutes and headed straight to Amsterdam to participate in the 1st IISA 1km Dutch Championship.
Thank you to Padraig Mallon IISA chair in Ireland for making this happen, his team and everyone who helped and supported. The sponsors who made it possible and most of all the Frozen Mad swimmers from Ireland and from South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Great Britain and India.
Well done ad thank you
See you in the ICE, good luck and be Safe.
Ram Barkai
IISA Founder and Chair