JULIE FLUTTERS ROUND MANHATTAN
A British woman made history this month as the fi rst person to swim around Manhat an Island using but erfl y stroke. Julie Bradshaw (pictured) took just under nine-and-a-half hours to swim the 28.5 mile island circumference. Although others swim this distance every
year, Bradshaw’s 16 July swim was notable for her use of the most diffi cult swimming stroke, which requires you to heave both shoulders out of the water with every arm stroke. “It was one of the toughest swims I’ve ever done,” said the 47-year-old Loughborough University lecturer, who already had a string of records to her name, including a but erfl y crossing of the English Channel. Bradshaw, who does much of her training in an Endless Pool in her backyard in Leicester, put her success down to “a positive mental at itude”.
CALLING OWS COACHES
The National Open Water Coaching Association (NOWCA) is launching a specifi c training course for coaches who want to work with open water swimmers. The course will run in September 2011 (TBC) and is open to ASA level 2 or BTF level 2 coaches or above. Contact rick@
nowca.org for details.
AWE ATORKNEY CROSSING MAGIC
NUMBERS Facts and fi gures we found out this month…
100kmThe weekly training distance of Penny
Palfrey before her 40-hour Cayman Bridge swim
The age of Roger Allsop who is aiming to become the oldest Channel swimmer
30%The percentage of your
Colleen, with her father
William, looked pleased aſt er fi nishing her 12-mile swim
Where many others have failed, a 33-year-old
Scot ish woman has succeeded: in completing the treacherous crossing between Orkney and the Scot ish mainland. Colleen Blair, from Aberfeldy in Highland Perthshire, became the fi rst person to swim the distance, taking four hours, 41 minutes and 21 seconds. Although the crossing from
Hoy to Caithness is nine miles in a straight line, the
swimmer was forced to swim a 12-mile ‘S’-shaped route due to strong tides – up to 16 knots – in the Pentland Firth, where the bit erly cold Atlantic Ocean meets the North Sea in a relatively narrow channel. “The water was choppy in bits because of the tides and I was told to speed up at one point, but apart from that and the cold, it was alright,” Colleen, who also had to contend with jellyfi sh, said.
The leisure centre duty manager has also swum Loch Ness (23.5 miles), the English Channel, and the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland. Further afi eld, she has completed a circuit of Manhat an Island in New York, and Jersey in the Channel Islands. She said of her swimming, “I like a challenge. I only plan one swim at a time so I don’t know what the next swim will be.” Corrina Thomson
swimming speed that comes from fi tness, as opposed to technique (see page 28)
$10,000 3
The winner-takes-all prize at the RCP Tiburon Mile in San Francisco (see page 44)
The number of jellyfi sh species found in the North Channel (see page 18)
£2,500
The cost to charter an escort boat across the English Channel
13 70
Photo © Aqua Sphere
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