British Long Distance Swimming Association - Lynn Regis Championship 2009

Above: British Long Distance Swimming Association (BLDSA) 2009 President, Jacky Classen, with me prior to handing back the 'Senior Men' (right) and 'Veteran Mens' (left) Trophies which I won at the 2008 Lynn Regis event - eventually! (click here for more).

On Saturday September 26, 2009 we set off for Kings Lynn in North Norfolk, to hand back the two trophies I had won at the 2008 BLDSA Lynn Regis Championship. Not having swum much this year, I would not be trying to defend my titles, but will hopefully be able to do so next year. When we got there we sat next to the BLDSA Hon Publicity Officer, and English Channel Swimmer, Dee Llewellwyn who I had such a great race with last year. She told me she had been ill for much of the year so was also not swimming. We wish you a speedy recovery Dee.

Race secretary Stephen Smith called everyone to order, men first followed by the ladies to enter the water. In the men's race was 2009 English Channel Swimmer, Ollie Wilkinson, and in the ladies race was Dee's sister and 2009 2-Way English Channel Swimmer, Lianne Llewellwyn.

Above: Swimmers enter the water. Second left, No. 26, is 2009 2 Way English Channel Swimmer, Lianne Llewellyn and her sister Dee, holding the camera at the front.

Above: The start of the 4.5KM race in The River Ouse, Kings Lynn, Norfolk.

Above: Beccy and I watch this years race with Luca and Dee Llewellyn.

Above: 2009 Senior Men's Winner and 2009 English Channel Swimmer, Ollie Wilkinson who won the race in 59.3 minutes.

After the race, we headed up to the beach in Hunstanton. The sun came out and it turned into a beautiful and very hot day. During the day, we started the ball rolling to organise a pretty unique swimming challenge for summer 2010. I will update the blog very soon with further information as soon as it is finalised.

Looking back at 2008...

2008 has been a fantastic year for swimming, probably my best ever. Below are a just a few of the highlights of the year, and at the end you will see the total we have raised so far for charity since we started this adventure in August 2006.

February 2008 - World Winter Swimming Championships - Tooting Bec, London, England

Above: Swimming with "Ice Bergs" in the 5.9 degrees Centigrade waters of the fabulous Tooting Bec Lido.

Above: The Ice man commeth... with Lewis Pugh, the first man in history to swim at -1.7 Degrees Centigrade at The North Pole.

Above: Tooting Bec Lido on an extremely warm February day, hosting the championships for the first time. Well done to all at South London Swimming Club. It was a fantastic weekend.

June 2008 - British Long Distance Swimming Association - Champion of Champions, Dover Harbour, England

Above: Competitors for the race line up on the beach in Dover Harbour prior to the race.

Above: Exiting the water having finished one of the three events.

Above: Keith Bartolo from Malta (centre), with my support crew for the weekend, James Patterson (left) and 'Little Hoffy' (right).

July 2008 - FINA World Cup Open Water Grand Prix - Serbia

Above: About to start my first training session in the River Sava in Sabac, Serbia. This was my first experience of what we affectionately started to call "Green".

Above: With English Channel World Record Holder and 8 times World Cup Open Water Swimming Champion, Petar Stoychev of Bulgaria, prior to the start of the race.

Above: Catching and overtaking Nikola Carradossi of Italy half way through the race.

Above: Finishing the race in 300mm thick "Green". A very interesting experience!

Above: The beautiful plaque presented to me by race director Vojislav Mijic after the race.

August 2008 - Dover Regatta 2000 Metre race

Above: About to enter Dover Harbour, my 'home pool' to start the 2008 Dover Regatta 2000 Metre sea race.

Above: Heading out to the start of the race.

Above: Running up the beach to cross the finish line and take 2nd place in the "Over 40's" event.

September 2008 - My second crossing of the English Channel in 13 Hours and 3 Minutes

Above: Battling the elements and the mental demons on a dark night, somewhere in the middle of the English Channel between England and France on Thursday September 11, 2008.

Above: Approaching Cap Gris-Nez, France on Friday September 12, 2008.

Above: Landing on a stony beach in France after 13 Hours and 3 Minutes with my support swimmer Mark Ransom, where we had a little 'discussion' about whether to swim back or not!

Above: A short video of the swim from England to France on September 11-12, 2008.

September 2008 - Winning my first British Long Distance Swimming Association title ... eventually!

Above: Out on my own in the 4.5KM race at Lynn Regis, Norfolk, England.

Above: Racing and beating Dee Llewelyn who finished in second place overall in the 2008 championship.

Above: Winning the "Veterans" trophy but not the "Senior Men's" trophy, which following an e-mail debate and a meeting of the BLDSA committee, was rectified when I was presented with....

...both trophies outside of my house by race organiser Stephen Smith in October 2008.

I was delighted to finish overall in 19th place out of 150 competitors in this years BLDSA Grand Prix, despite only competing in two events (Champion of Champions and Lynn Regis). A full set of results can be found by clicking on the link below:-

BLDSA Senior Grand Prix Results 2008

October 2008 - Eastern Region Masters Championships, Bury St Edmunds, UK.

Above: West Suffolk Masters Swim team who competed at the Eastern Region Masters Championships 2008.

Above: Starting one of my races at the championships.

Above: My 2008 medal haul from the championships.

October 2008 - FINA World Cup Open Water Grand Prix - Mexico

Above: Some of the competitors for the race, line up for the press at the end of a training swim. Left to right: Swimmer from Mexico, Stephan Gómez (France), Dörte Kamrau (Germany), Gabriel Villagois (Argentina), Stefanie Biller (Germany), Cesar Rodríguez (Argentina), Brendan Capel (Australia), Marianella Mendoza (Argentina), Tomi Stefanovski (Macedonia), Paul Hopfensperger (England), Larisa Ilchenko (Russia), Yury Kudinov (Russia), Natalya Pankina (Russia), Mariam Maricusi Sanchez (Panama), Brita Kamrau (Germany), Esther Nunez (Spain), Yuko Matsuzaki (Japan), Danil Serebrennikov (Russia), Damian Blaum (Argentina), German coach, Rodolfo Valenti (Italy). Front row kneeling - Shelley Clark (Australia), a Mexican swimmer, Noelia Petit (Argentina).

Above: Me with the 2008 Beijing Olympic 10KM Open Water Champion, Larisa Ilchenko from Russia.

Above: Preparing to enter the waters of the Sumidero Canyon, Mexico to start my second Grand Prix.

Above: During the race, and about to cross the finish line of the 15KM swim in energy sapping 27 Degrees Centigrade water.

I was pleased to finish ranked number 57 in the world in this event out of 65 total entrants, despite only completing 2 of the 9 possible events (Serbia and Mexico):-

Click here to download the final FINA rankings for 2008

Click here to download a full summary of my 2008 swims

FUNDRAISING

The purpose of all these swims is to raise £50,000 for two UK based charities, CLIC Sargent, the UK's largest Children's Cancer charity, and St. Nicholas' Hospice in my home town of Bury St Edmunds. I would like to thank all of my 2008 corporate sponsors who helped pay for some of these swims, which has now enabled us to raise a total of:-

£15,606.13p

Thank you to everyone who has sponsored me, and please continue to do so as we still have another £34,393.87p to go! 2009's swims will be announced in January 2009. Happy New Year to everyone!

British Long Distance Swimming Association - Lynn Regis Championship 2008 - The Winner Confirmed!

Above: Stephen Smith, BLDSA race organiser for the Lynn Regis Championship, presents Paul Hopfensperger with "both winners trophies" on Wednesday October 08, 2008 for the event which took place on Saturday September 20, 2008.

You may remember that on September 20, 2008, I crossed the finish line of the 2008 BLDSA Lynn Regis Championship in first place, only to be denied the winners trophy for the entire event because I was too old! If not, then click here to see the original story.

Well I am delighted to say, that this afternoon, the race organiser, Stephen Smith, drove all the way up from his home in Essex to present me with the winners trophy following a decision by the BLDSA committee last Saturday morning. I would like to thank Stephen, and all on the committee who came to this decision, which I am told by Stephen has made BLDSA history! Apparently, in the 52 year history of the BLDSA, a "Veteran" (someone aged 45 or over) has never won a "Senior men's" race (a male who is over 16 years old). Thank you once again, and I promise to try not to do it again!

Click here to download final list of results

The next swim is a 15KM FINA World Cup Grand Prix in Mexico. Beccy and I have had our jabs and started our malaria tablets! Will probably take a trip to train in Dover Harbour on Saturday to get back in the open water before we leave for Mexico. Anyone fancy coming in for a dip with me, just e-mail me and we will meet you there.

British Long Distance Swimming Association - Lynn Regis Championship 2008 - Winner!?

Above: Very happy after 'winning' the BLDSA Lynn Regis Championship 2008, covering the 4.5KM fresh water river swim in 01:02:55 (hh:mm:ss).

Just 8 days after completing my second English Channel swim, and after two light training sessions in the pool at Clarice House, we set of for Kings Lynn in North Norfolk to compete in the 2008 BLDSA Lynn Regis Championship. Due to all of the weekend training sessions required for the channel, this was only my second BLDSA event of the season, the Champion of Champions race in Dover Harbour was the other one, and I was really looking forward to it.

This was a big family day out with our dog Casper in the back, and Baz with his friend Ben all attending on what was an absolutely beautiful September day. In fact it was probably the best weather we had had since back in July. It really has been an awful year for the weather as far as open water swimming is concerned.

Above: Beccy massages a small but painful knot from my left shoulder just before the swim.

We were all briefed by the race organiser, Stephen Smith, given our numbers (I was M16) then prepared ourselves ready to enter the water to start the race. Just before I got in, I drank a full 500ml of "Channel Swimmers" energy drink (Maxim with water) then proceeded down to the river to enter the 15.5 degree Centigrade waters of the River Great Ouse.

Above: Entering the water and swimming to our start positions, which was to form a line between the river bank and the kayak.

Above: Video of the start of the race, I was closely watching Simon Lee of Solent Swimming Club who has won 54 BLDSA races over the years, and in my mind he was the man I had to beat to win this race.

Above: Baz and Ben watch the race and thanks to Baz who took all of the photos and video of the race.

The start of the race was the usual affair with lots of frantic swimming, jostling for position and kicks in the face. To my left just ahead of me was BLDSA committee member Dee Llewelyn from Bradford Swimming Club and to the right was Lee Portingale from Hitchin. The first lap was quite physical, and try as I might I could not get past Lee who constantly veered in front of me whenever I tried. I was sandwiched in between Dee and Lee and out to the right just ahead was Simon Lee.

Above: Swimming down the back straight after about the first 1KM of the 4.5KM race.

I swum at about 85% effort from the beginning and I felt really strong. Not at any stage did I feel that my arms were getting tired or that I was fading. I think I still had my non existent second channel swim energy to get rid of from last week, and I was absolutely fired up!

Eventually, I decided to go for it and squeezed myself in between Dee and Lee. As I crossed the start/finish line for the first of three times, I thought to myself that I was in the lead. I couldn't see Simon Lee anywhere and I assumed that I was either behind him, or he was way out in front. I looked up a couple of times, but could not see anyone ahead of me, and so just kept swimming. For most of the next couple of laps, Dee Llewelyn was just to the left of me and slightly behind. As I turned around each buoy at 750 Metres, I could see that Lee was a good 30-40 seconds behind me, but I still didn't know where Simon Lee was so started to increase my pace.

Above: Swimming alongside Dee Llewelyn for about 3KM of the race. Casper watches patiently for the race to end so that he can get in the river. Each time I went past he barked at me!

Eventually, still not knowing if I was definitely leading or not, I started to sprint at about 95% effort and broke clear of Dee. I was now out on my own, but unsure of my exact position.

Above: Out in the clear on the final stretch before turning for the short sprint to the finish line.

As I turned round the last buoy, I saw a blue hat around the other side of the buoy about 100 Metres in total in front of me. It must be Simon Lee I thought, and so sprinted flat out. I caught the swimmer with ease and realised that I must have just lapped someone. As I crossed the finish line, I shouted "Where did I come?". One of the judges put her forefinger up and said "First!". I was absolutely astonished and delighted to say the least. I had won my first BLDSA race, beating everyone in the field, Male/Female/Juniors/Seniors at the age of 45! I was chuffed to bits.

Above: Getting my breath back immediately after the finish of the race.

Above: Chatting to Dee Llewelyn and Lee Portingale immediately after the race. Simon Lee (left) came in 3rd position.

Dee came in about 12 seconds behind me and Lee about 1.5 minutes behind me (I will know exactly when the results are published). "You've speeded up!" said Dee. "It's all that Channel training Freda's put me through" I replied. We stayed in the water for a couple of minutes chatting before getting out.

Above: Beccy and Casper waiting to congratulate me after my win. (He spent the rest of the afternoon jumping in and out of the river having a great time!).

Above: Chatting to other swimmers about the race while waiting for the other swimmers to finish.

Disappointment after a great day!

When all the swimming was complete, we went into the Ouse Sailing Club clubhouse for the prize giving. When I entered the race and paid my entry fee, there were quite clearly three levels of entry on the form:-

4.5KM (Senior) / 1.5KM (Junior) / 1KM (Novice)

I paid my £18.00 entry fee for the Seniors 4.5KM Gents Freestyle race. When the prizes were given out, I was presented with the "Veterans" trophy as the winner of the "Veterans" race. I was confused as I didn't know there was a "Veterans" race. To my knowledge I had won the entire event! Matters were compounded when Lee Portingale of Hitichin, was presented with a trophy for "First Male Finisher" and winner of the Senior Men's race. He came over to me and said "I asked them to give this to you but they wouldn't!". He was clearly uncomfortable accepting the trophy, and so would I have been if I was in that position. So the "Senior Male" who came second in the race, was presented with the winners trophy and the winner (me) got presented with the "Winner of the Veteran's race" trophy!

Above: BLDSA President, Janet Wilson presents Paul Hopfensperger, first person home in the entire swim, and therefore first Male over 16 home, with the Men's Veteran trophy, while...

Above: BLDSA President, Janet Wilson presents the second Male swimmer over 16 home, Lee Portingale of Hitichin, with the "First Male Swimmer over 16 home" trophy!?

I queried all of this with race organiser Stephen Smith, who said during the presentations that they had never had this position before where a "Veteran" (45 years old and over on the day of the swim) had beaten the "Senior Men" (Male swimmers aged 16 and over on the day of the swim - (Includes Veterans)) and so they were unsure what to do.

I telephoned him on Sunday evening, and he has promised to look into this for me at the next committee meeting in October, as he feels that I have a point, and the official results will show that I won the race. I entered a race as a "Senior" and there was no mention of the word "Veteran" when entering the race. The people I have spoken to think that I should have received both trophies and this is what I feel as well. I am a male over 16 and was the first male over 16 to finish the race. How can that be any clearer you would have to ask? I have never heard of anyone being too old to win a race! Isn't that discrimination?

Click here to download report and preliminary results

Watch this space for further news...