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Daniela Ryf’s record breaking performance saw her take victory for the fourth year running, proving herself to be one of, if not the greatest female triathlete of all time, while Patrick Lange smashed the 8 hour barrier, winning in a record time of 07:52:39.
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Ironman World Champs: Daniela Ryf smashes Kona record
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1. 1st male overall was Patrick Lange (GER) in a time of 7:52:39, who broke his own course best set in 2017 of 8:01:40. Advertisement 2. 1st female overall was Daniela Ryf (SUI) in a time of 8:26:16: swim 57:26 (struggled with a jelly fish sting), bike 4:26:07 and run 2:57:05, breaking her own course best set in 2016 of 8:46:46. 3. The fastest male swimmer was age-grouper Jan Sibbersen in a time of 46:29, breaking the previous men’s record in Kona of 46:41 that had stood for 20 years, held by Lars Jorgensen. Jan’s bike split was 5:12:51, his run 4:26:24, for a total time of 10:37:33. 4. The fastest female swimmer was GB’s Lucy Charles in a time of 48:13. She averaged 1:15mins per 100m and in doing so set a new female course record, beating Jodi Jackson’s 1991 record of 48:43. She also finished in the overall top-10 fastest elite swim times of the day. 5. Fastest male bike split of the day was set by Cameron Wurf (AUS), a former pro cyclist and rower turned Ironman competitor. He improved his Kona record to 4:09:06 (26.98mph) from the 4:12:54 he set in 2017. His other splits were: swim 50:51; run 3:06:18, for a total time of 8:10:32. 6. Fastest female bike split of the day was set by Daniela Ryf in 4:26:07 (25:39mph), another new Kona record. The previous best time was 4:44:19, set by former time-trial specialist Karin Thürig in 2001. 7. Fastest male marathon run leg of the day came courtesy of Patrick Lange with a 2:41:32. 8. Fastest female marathon run leg of the day was set by Anne Haug 02:55:20. 9. For the first time in Kona history, the 8hr barrier was broken! Twice! First by Lange (7:52:39) and then by runner-up Bart Aernouts (BEL) in 7:56:41. His splits were: swim 54:07; bike 4:12:26; run 2:45:42. 10. Daniela Ryf came 25th overall beating 21 male pros; Lucy Charles came 35th overall. 11. Another Kona first saw the men’s winner propose to his girlfriend after crossing the finish line. Within a minute of finishing, Lange got down on one knee and proposed to Julia Hoffmann – she said yes! 12. Kyle and Brent Pease became the first push-assisted team of brothers to cross the finish line, and only the second pair in that category to complete the race. For the swim, Brent towed his brother in a boat, then completed the bike leg in a specially adapted bike before running with his brother in a specially adapted running chair. The last team to do so was father Dick and son Rick Hoyt in 1999. The Peases finished in a time of 14:29hrs. Advertisement 13. GB’s Liz McTernan became only the second female wheelchair participant to complete Kona, and now holds the course record of 14:21:12. McTernan competed in the ‘Physically Challenged’ or PC Division, using a hand bike for 180km and a racing wheelchair for the marathon. Congratulations #TeamCAF athlete @lizmcternan! Liz crossedthe finish line at #IMKONA as the 2nd wheelchair woman to ever finish the @IRONMANtri World Championship. AND she now holds the course record for fastest time. Echo devices may be manufactured with illegal overtime labor from Chinese teenagers, a labor activist group alleges.Amazon said it is investigating the report of labor abuses at Foxconn, the Chinese electronics manufacturer contracted to make the devices.Teenage students in China are reportedly forced to work 10-hour days, six days a week. “We are urgently investigating these allegations and addressing this with Foxconn at the most senior level,” an Amazon spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. “Additional teams of specialists are on-site to investigate, and we’ve initiated weekly audits of this issue.”Teenage interns from Chinese vocational schools are working 10-hour days, six days a week, in violation of a regulation in China that prohibits vocational school students from working overtime as well as night shifts, China Labor Watch said in its report. Students also reported being physically and verbally abused, the report said.In one case, a 17-year-old student named Xiao Fang told China Labor Watch that she was told by her school that she would work between 5 to 8 hours per day. But her work on the Echo production line stretched to 10-hour days, which she said consisted of placing protective film over 3,000 Echo dots per day. At the same time, Wisconsin has pledged generous subsidies to Foxconn in exchange for the development and the promise of 13,000 local jobs created. But the smaller scale of the project means that taxpayers will be shelling out far more than they expected, with one economist projecting that each Foxconn job will cost taxpayers about $290,000, rather than the $172,000 under the plant’s original size.”The incentives are so costly per job that it is hard to see how likely benefits will offset” costs, wrote the economist, Timothy J. Bartik of the nonpartisan W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
It’s not often swim, bike and run makes football play second fiddle, but there are more spectators here for the inaugural Dubrovnik Triathlon than attended the Croatia v England international – 400 miles north along the Adriatic coast in Rijeka – the previous evening. And given this is a football-obsessed nation whose national team reached the World Cup final, it’s a victory to be celebrated for multisport. (We can gloss over both who they beat in the semi-final and that this recent encounter was played behind closed doors.) Advertisement Triathlon is a new sport in a city famed for its Old Town. Named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979, its siege by Serbian and Montenegrin soldiers became a focal point during the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early nineties, but having taken a pre-race trip inside the medieval bulwarks, I can report it’s now deluged by up to 10,000 tourists a day, disembarking cruise ships to roam its ramparts. Part of the attraction is the baroque, renaissance and gothic architecture, but it’s also the phenomenon that is Game of Thrones, the fantasy television drama that was filmed here. Given I’ve never watched a second of the show, my pop culture references end here, but at least it’ll save you from laboured puns being crowbarred into the race report, such as Game of Triathlons (attempt a faux European accent and switch ‘ons’ for ‘owns’). On to a less hectic affair than the Old Town – the race – and a sprint or standard distance option, starting from Gruz Harbour, with a transition zone neatly slotted between moored luxury yachts. It’s a 2pm start and the untriathlonly time is virtue of the organisers being given a one-hour window between the aforementioned hulking cruise liners docking and setting sail. After that strict deadline the port is back open for business, so there’s significant motivation to make the swim cut-off.
Did you know? 16 facts from the 2018 Ironman World Championships
Children forced to work overtime to make your Amazon devices, report says
Amazon’s Echo devices may be manufactured with illegal overtime labor from Chinese teenagers, according to a report from the labor activist group China Labor Watch. Amazon said it’s investigating the report and will address its concerns with Foxconn, the manufacturer contracted to make the devices.
When she complained about the hours, she was told she couldn’t continue her internship at Foxconn unless she worked overtime, and that if she didn’t complete the internship, she would risk her chances of graduating as well as receiving scholarships, the report said.Foxconn, based in Taiwan but operating numerous facilities in China and other countries, said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch that it has “doubled the oversight and monitoring of the internship program” to ensure that interns don’t work overtime or nights. “There have been instances in the past where lax oversight on the part of the local management team has allowed this to happen and, while the impacted interns were paid the additional wages associated with these shifts, this is not acceptable and we have taken immediate steps to ensure it will not be repeated,” the company said.Foxconn’s historyThis is not the first time the publicly traded company — one of the largest private employers in the world — has been accused of illegal labor practices.In 2012, the plight of Foxconn workers came to light after hundreds of workers threatened to commit suicide amid protests over wages. At the time, many Americans had never heard of the contractor, even though it makes some of the most popular devices in the U.S., such as Apple’s iPhones and Microsoft’s Xbox.Last year, China Labor Watch alleged that Foxconn workers who manufactured Amazon devices worked in harsh conditions for low wages. It also said the factory overly relied on temporary workers, who can be paid less than regular workers.Closer to home, Foxconn is also coming under fire for a deal to open a Wisconsin factory. Touted by President Donald Trump when the factory was announced in 2017, the project has since dwindled from a $10 billion manufacturing center to a “research hub.”
Dubrovnik Triathlon makes its debut
SCRIPTED DEBUT
The area is trying to carve its own niche in activity breaks. There’s a half-marathon here in April that finishes on the Stradun – Dubrovnik’s most famous limestone-paved street in the Old Town – and 60 miles away in Kotor, Montenegro, the Ocean Lava middle distance race takes place in May. It’s not a tricky place to get to and here we’ve 15 different nationalities, many from former Yugoslav republics, plus a scattering of Brits.
For a first-time event, it almost feels scripted. The weather is blissfully mid-20s, and the harbour water 21 degrees, making it just cool enough for novices (or those hellbent on winning) to wear a wetsuit. The bike course follows the coast to the small village of Komolac, and is both the prettiest dragstrip imaginable and seemingly the only flat stretch of road in the region. The run is out and back along the harbour edge where the most taxing element is keeping count of your laps.
As I’m about to plop in for the deep-water start, I try to recall the last time I undertook a standard-distance triathlon. My fumbling excuse is that my time has been better served agonising over topics for my 220 Triathlon column, although that’s probably best left for others to judge. Conclusion: “It’s been a while – and it’ll take a while.” And so it plays out.
The two-lap anticlockwise swim is rather too pleasant – not a jellyfish in sight (take note as an alternative race option for next year, Daniela Ryf). About 60 people have signed up for the standard distance, a similar number for the sprint, plus a handful of relay teams, and both the water and opposition are calmness personified. My only gripe is with the toddlers’ swim caps provided, as the silicon dome pings from my bonce about midway through the first lap, striking another blow to marine welfare.
Out on to the road bike (I’ve borrowed from the organisers) in 39mins (including T1, I’m sure it was long), I spend the majority of the four laps daydreaming at the scenery, reading the derrieres of tri-suits and wondering how they’re pronounced (my straw poll of waiters confirms the Croatian language is brutish to grasp), and hoping I’ll overtake someone who isn’t on a mountain bike. The tranquillity is occasionally broken when some lunatic on a TT bike and deep-dished wheels comes whooping past (my one piece of serious advice would be to pack a TT bike if you want to compete), but they pretty sharply bugger off into the distance anyway.
Returning 1:24hr later, I head out for a fairly uneventful run, where the sun beats down and I have to pass the finish gantry 11 times (yes, I just worked it out), before I can actually jog under the arch in 45mins for a less-than-competitive 2:49:32 and just sneak into the top 30.
CRUISES, COFFEE AND CRAP CANNONS
My race aside, the Dubrovnik Triathlon has a lot going for it. No matter how many risk assessments are undertaken, first-time events are fraught with the potential for unforeseen hiccups. It’s compounded when a venue is not au fait with triathlon, and judging by the motorists in the town, it will be a while before a cycling culture takes off.
Yet enthusiasm – and Dubrovnik has a two-year-old 20-strong tri club getting behind it – can go a long way. It also helps when you bring in John Lunt and Co, the team behind the successful Brighton and Hove Tri, with Lunt formerly triathlon course manager for the London 2012 Olympics. So, while I’m sure there are a few teething issues, they’re well-hidden and certainly no disasters.
It isn’t just the finishing chute where the red (ok, blue) carpet has been rolled out either. There’s a familiarisation swim at Banje Beach the morning before the race – the reward being free coffee and doughnuts bigger than lifebuoys – and a triathletes’ reception in Sponza Palace in the Old Town in the evening where a welcoming British consul informs us it’s British week in Dubrovnik, although the Beatles tribute act crooning in the main square in front of a London bus was already a slight giveaway.
Post-race there’s an awards party offering a bellyful of pasta and apple strudel, a few tunes and a live stream of the Ironman World Championship, jellyfish and all, on the big screen. Then it’s all aboard for a cruise around the bay at 9am the following morning in a replica 16th-century Karaka, which, for all intents and purposes is a pirate ship with crap cannons, air-conditioning and cappuccinos.
TICKS THE 2019 BOXES
Given there are so many options on the racing calendar, does Dubrovnik deserve its place on your itinerary next year? There are races that offer a calm wetsuit-optional sea swim, there are others that provide closed bike courses that are flat and safe for novices, and still more that provide a scenic backdrop.
You can also find affordable races (£65/£50 for the standard/sprint distance) within a two-hour EasyJet flight of the UK, where you have a choice of accommodation from luxury hotels to affordable AirBnBs, and some also offer plenty of cultural options when you strip off the Lycra. But a destination that ticks all those boxes is a challenge, and that’s where the Dubrovnik Triathlon wins out.
The late Lord Bryon called the city the Pearl of the Adriatic. It’s less known that he’s also credited for starting the modern age of open-water swimming in 1810. I’ve a feeling that if he were still alive today, the legendary poet would be first in the queue to slip on his race belt… because this is one event you Don Juan a miss.
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Backed by military aircraft, Brazilian troops on Saturday prepared to deploy in the Amazon rainforest to fight fires that have swept the region and prompted anti-government protests as well as an international outcry.
Some 44,000 troops will be available for “unprecedented” operations to put out the fires, and forces are heading to six Brazilian states that asked for federal help to contain the blazes, Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo said. The states are Roraima, Rondonia, Tocantins, Para, Acre and Mato Grosso.The military’s first mission will be the deployment of 700 troops to the area around Porto Velho, capital of Rondonia, Azevedo said. He added that the military will use two C-130 Hercules aircraft capable of dumping up to 3,170 gallons of water on fires.
An Associated Press journalist flying over the Porto Velho region Saturday morning reported hazy conditions and low visibility. On Friday, the reporter saw many already deforested areas that were burned, apparently by people clearing farmland, as well as a large column of smoke billowing from one fire.The Brazilian military operations came after widespread criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the crisis. The president Friday authorized the armed forces to get involved in putting out the fires, saying he is committed to protecting the Amazon region.”It shows the concern of Bolsonaro’s government about this issue,” Azevedo said. “It was a very fast response.”The defense minister noted U.S. President Trump’s offer in a tweet to help Brazil fight the fires, and said there had been no further contact on the matter. Bolsonaro has previously described rainforest protections as an obstacle to Brazil’s economic development, sparring with critics who say the Amazon absorbs vast amounts of greenhouse gasses and is crucial for efforts to contain climate change.The Amazon fires have become a global issue, escalating tensions between Brazil and European countries who believe Bolsonaro has neglected commitments to protect biodiversity. Protesters gathered outside Brazilian diplomatic missions in European and Latin American cities Friday, and demonstrators also marched in Brazil.Conservationist Paul Rosolie told “CBS This Morning” that military action isn’t enough and said the Amazon is at risk of “collapsing.””The Amazon is a loop. It’s producing the moisture that creates all that rain that makes it a rainforest,” said Rosolie, who wrote about his experiences in the jungle in his 2014 book, “Mother of God.”
“As we chop more of the rainforest down – and this has been going on for decades, this is not an isolated issue — as we chop more of the rainforest, what we’re risking is reaching a tipping point, where that moisture system might be too dry to produce the rain. And then you have a serious problem on your hands, because you’re talking about the entire Amazon sort of collapsing.”The dispute spilled into the economic arena when French President Emmanuel Macron threatened to block a European Union trade deal with Brazil and several other South American countries. He wants G-7 leaders meeting at a summit in France this weekend to discuss the Amazon crisis.”First, we need to help Brazil and other countries put out these fires,” Macron said Saturday.The goal is to “preserve this forest that we all need because it is a treasure of our biodiversity and our climate thanks to the oxygen that it emits and thanks to the carbon it absorbs,” he said.Bolivia and Paraguay have also struggled to contain fires that swept through woods and fields, in many cases set to clear land for farming. A U.S.-based aircraft, the B747-400 SuperTanker, is flying over devastated areas in Bolivia to help put out the fires and protect forests.Fires are common in Brazil in the annual dry season, but they are much more widespread this year. Brazilian state experts reported nearly 77,000 wildfires across the country so far this year, up 85% over the same period in 2018.
They have multiple established kayak, bike and run races in Ireland, but now the Quest Adventure Series race organisers have confirmed their first UK race for 2019.
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Quest Wales will be staged in the surroundings of Snowdonia National Park, and challenges athletes to trail run, bike and kayak their way across the mountains of North Wales.
Set for Saturday 8 June 2019, Quest Wales is targeted at all fitness levels and abilities, and athletess have the option of three scenic routes; 25km Challenge, 42km Sport or 53km Expert.
– The 25km Challenge consists of: 8km road bike/1km kayak/6km run/10km road bike.
– The 42km Sport is: 6km trail run/13km road bike/1km kayak/11km trail run/11km road bike.
– The 53km Challenge is: a 6km trail run/13km road bike/1km kayak/11km trail run/15km road bike/7km run.
Kayaks are provided as part of your entry fee and bikes are available to hire at an additional cost.
Oliver Kirwan, Race Director at Quest Adventure Series, says: “Even if you’ve only done a 10k previously, you can do this! Just bring your sense of adventure and we’ll provide the atmosphere and an unforgettable experience. A lot of our participants sign-up as part of a team and adventure races are a great excuse to plan a weekend away with friends and like-minded people to work hard and then, play hard too.”
Quest Wales is part of the Quest Adventure Series which encompasses a number of one-day adventure races across Ireland in Killarney, Kenmare, Glendalough and Achill, which attracted over 8,000 participants in 2018.
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Entries for Quest Wales start at £68.00 and you can register at https://www.questadventureseries.com/race/quest-wales/
Greta Thunberg’s U.N. address became the speech heard ’round the world this week. Thunberg addressed hundreds of global leaders and while one, President Trump, seemed unimpressed by the 16-year-old climate activist, another U.S. politician wants to help her.
Thunberg said this week that former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger offered to lend her his electric car. In clip from the Scandinavian talk show “Skavlan,” Thunberg reveals the governator’s offer. In the teaser clip, Thunberg speaks in her native Swedish and tells host Fredrik Skavlan that many people have offered to help her. “One of the funniest offers I’ve received is that Arnold Schwarzenegger has offered me to lend his electric car if I want to,” Thunberg said, according to a press release from “Skavlan” about the interview.
In 2017, Schwarzenegger partnered with electric mobility company Kreisel to develop an electric Hummer. CBS News has reached out to reps for Schwarzenegger for more details about his offer to lend the car to Thunberg.The teen will continue her climate crusade in Montreal, and we may just see her cruising there in an electric Hummer. This is not the first time Schwarzenegger has showed support for Thunberg. In 2018, the actor-turned-politician tweeted about how Thunberg inspired him. The two finally met in May 2019 at a climate conference in Austria. Schwarzenegger shared a photo of himself with Thunberg, saying he was “starstruck.”In another clip released ahead of the “Skavlan” interview, documentarian Michael Moore joins Thunberg on the stage. Skavlan, Thunberg and Moore discuss the teen’s contentious relationship with President Trump, which unfolded in front of the world on social media this week, as both attended the U.N. General Assembly. Skavlan asked Thunberg about her brief run-in with the American president at the U.N. The moment Mr. Trump entered the room and Thunberg stared him down was captured on camera.”He could feel the eyes on the back of his head,” Moore said as the audience laughed.”I was stopped because suddenly he came in and security went, ‘You have to step to the side.’ And suddenly he came in,” Thunberg explained. “I think I was very shocked.”
Skavlan also asked Thunberg about Mr. Trump’s tweet about her. The teen agreed that of course Mr. Trump was being sarcastic when he called her a “very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.””I knew that sometime he was probably going to say something about me,” Thunberg said. “It was like, it doesn’t make any difference, in a way.””Skavlan” has been filming in New York all week, and Thunberg’s whole interview will air on Friday, Septebmer 27.
The new 70.3 race is to take place on October 27 2019, and athletes will take in many of the famous monuments and landmarks historic Marrakech is famous for, including the Medina of Marrakech, the Bahia Palace, the Madrasa, the Koutoubia Mosque and Minaret, the Jemaa el-Fnaa Square and the Majorelle Garden.
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“It is a dream come true that the iconic and internationally acclaimed competition, the Ironman 70.3 triathlon, will be held for the first time in the Maghreb by Morocco,” said Simo Azelarab, President of NAPECO and event organiser. “This event is sure to attract athletes from across the globe and will inspire Moroccan athletes to compete in one of the most personally-satisfying endurance challenges in the world.”
The triathletes will begin their race with a single-loop 1.2-mile (1.9 km) swim in Lake Lalla Takerkoust, before embarking on the 56-mile (90 km) cycling course, which winds through the Berber village of Tahanaout and the green meadows of the Ourika Valley with the snow-capped Atlas Mountain peaks as a backdrop. The two-loop 13.1-mile (21 km) run takes place in the heart of the Red City where athletes will pass historical monuments such as the Koutoubia Mosque and Minaret.
The race concludes in the iconic Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan, providing a never-to-be-forgotten finish for those racing in Marrakech.
“Marrakech is one of Morocco’s most memorable experiences. It shines by its exceptional cultural and natural heritage,” added Azelarab. “Visitors can either immerse themselves in the history of this city through its various monuments, palaces, museums and wonderful gardens or discover its various avant-garde and cosmopolitan places. October in Marrakech is also a month of blissful equilibrium after the heat of the summer, leaving idyllic racing conditions for the athletes.”
The Ironman 70.3 Marrakech triathlon will offer 30 age-group qualifying slots for the 2020 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship Taupō, New Zealand taking place on November 28-29, 2020.
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Visit www.ironman.com/marrakech70.3 for more information.
Kidapawan, Philippines — The third strong earthquake this month killed five people Thursday, injured several others and destroyed buildings that were already damaged by the earlier shaking in a devastated region in the southern Philippines, officials said. Several cities and towns in the quake-hit area suspended school classes and office work due to fear of more tremors.
Many residents may have returned to already-damaged houses despite the risks because of the humid tropical heat, causing some injuries due to falling debris, officials said.A village hall collapsed in Batasan village in Makilala town of hard-hit Cotabato province and the village leader was pinned to death, Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said.
Another man was pinned to death by a fallen tree and a woman died after being hit by heavy debris elsewhere in Makilala, government welfare officer Rosemarie Alcebar told The Associated Press by telephone. Two other villagers died due to quake-related injuries in Cotabato’s Arakan town but details of their deaths were not immediately available, Alcebar said.In Cotabato’s city of Kidapawan, a small hotel partially collapsed, crushing the lobby and a bank on the ground floor and causing the building to lean on an adjacent hospital. Both the hotel and the hospital were ordered abandoned because of the previous quake damage but six employees and an engineer were inside Eva’s Hotel when the ground shook at midmorning, Mayor Joseph Evangelista said.”They’re supposed to inspect the building with an engineer then it happened. They managed to run out,” Evangelista told DZMM radio.The hospital and the hotel, its concrete columns precariously leaning and its rooms exposed without walls and windows, were cordoned off as they may collapse completely anytime.In Davao city, President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown, a five-story condominium partly crashed down on its basement and rescue workers scrambled to bring out nine residents, one of whom was injured and brought to a hospital, officials said.The residents of the 56-room building had been urged to evacuate after it was damaged by the earlier quake on Tuesday but some defied the warning.Duterte and his family were safe in his Davao city home but engineers would check the stability of his house just to be sure, said Brig. Gen. Jose Eriel Nembra, who heads the presidential security force.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the 6.5-magnitude quake was set off by movement in a local fault at a depth of 3.7 miles about 17 miles east of Tulunan town in Cotabato province. The region already was devastated by two powerful earthquakes and hundreds of aftershocks this month.At least eight people died in Tuesday’s 6.6 magnitude quake, two were missing, 395 were injured and more than 2,700 houses and buildings, including schools and hospitals, were damaged, according to the Office of Civil Defense.An Oct. 16 earthquake with a magnitude 6.3 killed at least seven people, injured more than 200 and destroyed or damaged more than 7,000 buildings.The Philippine archipelago lies on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the arc of faults around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur.
After 157 days at sea and 1,792 miles of swimming, 33-year old Ross Edgley today became the first person to swim around the UK coast — breaking several world records into the bargain — and 220 were there to share the moment with him.
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Finishing on 4th November, the swim has had some highs and some lows that really captured the world’s imagination – most of us will by now be familiar with the horrors of salt tongue, jellyfish attacks and zombie feet – as well as amazing records broken, the sealife that has swum with him, the famous ‘banana count’ and (perhaps most memorably) Edgley’s irrepressible enthusiasm for an endurance event many believed was impossible.
True to form, the finish was nothing short of spectacular and today 220 Triathlon were lucky enough to join 300 open-water swimmers who took to the water to meet Ross 750m from the shore in Margate and bring him home as part of a flotilla of swimmers.
The swimmers (most in wetsuits, but some in skins in the 11 degree water!) met Ross alongside his boat and crew and with an appearance from the Red Bull Matadors display team, an emotional group made their way to the finish on the beach in Margate, where Ross swam the final few metres ahead of everyone else to individually finish his world-record swim alone and make his way on to dry land for the first time in 157 days. There, hundreds of supporters met him including Ironman triathlete Lucy Charles and SAS: Who Dares Wins’ Ant Middleton, both of who advised him during his training.
Ross Edgley exits the final swim of his world record swim around the UK coast. Image: 220/Gavin Parish
Once out of the water we managed to grab a hug and 10 minutes with Ross to find out how he’s feeling at the end of his epic journey:
220: Why did you decide to finish with 300 other swimmers?
It was just nuts, wasn’t it? This is why the open-water swimming and triathlon community are so special – and maybe it’s something about Britain as well – but if you said to anyone else in any other sport “it’s Sunday morning, there’s this guy swimming in to shore, you’ve never met him before, but do you want to get up and swim with him? It’s going to be really cold…?” they’d probably say no! But in this sport everyone was like: “Sure!”
We had guys in skins out there, we had some amazing Channel swimmers with us and we had the Royal Marines guiding everyone in… It’s hard to explain how I felt in that moment but you were there, you saw it! I had to remove my goggles at one moment, I got so choked up.
That was the best way for the swim to finish as well. Having everyone there, that massive group hug in Margate when we were all clambering all over each other… I couldn’t have asked for anything else. It was the best way to end and it was just amazing.
220 Editor Helen Webster joined Ross as part a group of 300 swimmers for the final swim into Margate. Image: 220/Gavin Parish
220: Has that sense of community been important in this challenge?
It was never my moment and it was never an individual sport. From the outset this was a team effort. For example with the salt tongue, my tongue was literally falling apart and the community of open-water swimmers and triathletes helped with advice and help! It was really nice getting that support – they’d say “oh wetsuit chafing, here’s what I’d do”, or “your tongue is falling apart? Here’s a homemade remedy”.
220: How are you feeling now you’ve completed the swim and are back on dry land?
I like to talk and it’s nice to see people! I’ve had the company of minke whales and dolphins and they don’t talk much! I met one lady today who was going to swim the channel but she’s been diagnosed with cancer, so is going to get treatment and try again next year – hearing stories like that is just amazing.
When you do something like this it brings people together, just the crazy nature of it. I don’t know why! It just brings the very best people together. There’s one person that came all the way from America! We asked him if he had any family in Margate, but he was like: “nope. I’m just here for the swim!” He came from America and is flying home tonight, that’s just amazing. I had to be pulled away from him, I would still be there with him and with everyone else taking selfies!
220: What else helped you get through the swim?
The team too, for sure. Me and Matt got quite choked up last night. The sense of humour that you develop to try and get through something like this is quite something. Last night we watched the sun set and we were talking about how he’d bought 5kg of Vaseline with him for the swim… So much lube… and I’d said we were never going to need it all, but we got through 4kg! That’s the statistic from the swim that I’m most proud of!
Towards the end he’s putting Vaseline on my neck and helping me into my wetsuit and I just whispered “I’ve never really been chafing, I just like these moments together…” and he’s just rolling around in stitches laughing. There was this constant weird sense of humour, that you will only get when you do things like this. Open-water swimmers will understand, it just bonds you in strange ways!
Ross with Ironman pro Lucy Charles. Full interview with Lucy to follow online later this week! Image: 220/Gavin Parish
220: Now you’re on dry land, what are you most looking forward to?
I just want to be warm! The Great British Swim strips you back to your most basic human needs. I haven’t been warm in 157 days so now I just want to be toasty. I wouldn’t mind sweating, I mean, I haven’t sweated in 157 days! People ask if there’s anything else and I’m like “no, just warmth!” I’ve got socks on now and that feels nice! It sounds cheesy, but I just want family and friends – and to be warm. Barbeques too, maybe. I missed out on a summer of barbeques…
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To read the full interview with Ross Edgley where he opens up more about finishing the Great British Swim, how his body has been affected and what his next challenge will be, check out issue 359 of 220 Triathlon, on sale 29th November 2018.
Lucy Charles talks Ross Edgley, Kona 2018 and the magic powers of chocolate brownies…