Dolphin’s Big Swim

Taking a short break from the pool, 6 Swindon Dolphin swimmers switched sights for the open water in the Tri Ferris Big Swim . This event saw 108 competitors race the 1 mile (1.6km) course around the Waterland Outdoor Pursuits lake (aka Lake 32) in the Cotswold Water Park, although many swimmers Garmins recorded the course closer to 1.9km on the day.

While a vast majority of swimmers took the advantage of wearing their Tri wetsuits, 10 swimmers, including Swindon Dolphins Stuart Gibbs decided to swim the race without a wetsuit. This didn’t hold Stuart back as he won his age group category, joining Jake Lewis & Sarah Forbes to win 3 of the 8 age categories across both Male & Female groups. Full results for the Dolphin swimmers are as follows:

Jake Lewis finished 2nd overall and winner in the 17-39 category with a swim time of 23:47. Jake just missed winning the overall event by 1 second. Jack Church finished 6th overall and 4th in the 17-39 category with a swim time of 27.05 Stuart Gibbs finished 9th overall and winner in the Vet 40+ category with a swim time of 28.23 Sarah Forbes finished 12th overall (fastest female swimmer) and winner of the Female Vet 40+ category with a swim time of 29.15 Andy Griffiths finished 13th overall and 5th in the 17-39 catgeory with a swim time of 29.34 Rachel Rose finished 49th overall and 8th in the Vet 40+ category with a swim time of 37.13

Not only were the swimmers competing for individual places, they were also racing as a team for the inaugural Glenys France Trophy. Glenys was well known, respected and liked on the swimming circuit and an ex member of Swindon Dolphin. The Swindon Dolphin team finished in a very close 2nd place, narrowly missing 1st place by just 26 seconds.

Swindon Dolphin Open Water Secretary & Coach Jason Tait commented, this was a very good result for the club in what was a rather quiet year. Going forward, the club plans to expand its Open Water section with the addition of 2 new Open Water Coaches and will be looking to introduce more of the clubs swimmers to Open Water.

Full Results of The Big Cotswold Swim can be found here