Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
Unlike Hurricane Hanna's cancellation of the Brooklyn Bridge Swim, Hurricane Gustav only caused a water temperature drop at the Big Shoulders 2.5K and 5K Swims on Saturday.
Under a gorgeous fall morning, 410 swimmers completed the 5 km swim and 193 swimmers entered the 2.5 km race in Lake Michigan. Although Hurricane Gustav lowered the water temperature by 10°F, the lakefront was relatively calm and showcased the skills of Northwestern's Eric Nilsson who won the 5K in 56:38, followed by Washington D.C.'s Steuart Martens at 57:21, and Mike Alexandrov at 57:24. 1998 world 5 km champion and fellow Northwestern Wildcat Erica Rose led the women's field with a time of 1:01:13, followed by Indy Swimfit's Victoria Rian at 1:02:50 and Kelly Perry at 1:04:19.
Former King of the Channel Michael Read also competed as well as the ever-present Bill Ireland of Southern California who competed in race from Fiji to Alcatraz to Chicago on a one-man world open water swimming tour.
Photo of Erica Rose by TYR.
Copyright © 2008 by World Open Water Swimming Association
2 comments:
I swam in that; the conditions were as calm as I had ever seen them. The day could not have been better.
As far as the winning times go: they would have been even faster had the first wave swimmers left when the clock started. There was about a 10-15 second gap between the clock starting and the swimmers actually leaving!
The problem is that the start was announced from the beach, which was about, say, 50-100 meters away from the in water start.
Thank you very much. If you have any photos, please send them so we can post for others to see.
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