Race Report: Ullswater Swim

Created On: 12 July 2011

A lack of sunshine didn't stop nearly 700 swimmers signing up to tackle the penultimate event in the 2011 XTERRA Epic Lakes Swim Series held at Ullswater Lakes, against the beautiful backdrop of the Lake District on Sunday 10^th July.

With the events team always looking for new ways to increase the fun factor, several swimmers lost a few seconds from their swim times as they fought to stop laughing at the sight of race director Marc Laithwaite's green plastic toy trumpet that was used to get competitors underway.

The 500m event was once again dominated by teenagers with Ally Wright (14) and Emily Dean (15) winning the male and female event respectively in times of 6:37.15 and 7:49.35.

Perhaps mindful of upcoming iron-distance races such as Ironman UK and The Outlaw, there were almost as many 3.8k racers as there were for the classic mile, with 206 successfully completing the course.

Dan Craigen put in an impressive performance to claim first place in the men's race, in a time of 50:11. Female winner Melissa Clapperton wasn't too far behind, also finishing under the hour mark with a time of 55:53

A scrap for first place developed in the mile event with previous winner Beau Smith losing out to Josh Gallagher by mere seconds, as Josh claimed victory in 20:41. Grace Randles took her second victory of the series with a time of 22:30.

The final event of the series takes place at Coniston Water on Sunday 14^th August from 9am, having been rescheduled from 29^th May following bad weather.

Photo: Sportsunday.co.uk

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