Brownsea Swim 2015

Challenge bOnce again, another truly wonderful Brownsea Island Swim, the weather held up beautifully and the wind against tide made for an extremely tough swim on the back half of the island, right into the finish funnel. It was certainly a much talked about topic by the swimmers on the finish line whilst getting their breath back and recovering. No one said it would be easy and after all the Swim T-Shirts do state “Brownsea Island Challenge”, well guess what – it lived up to it this year.

DSCN1460_001Although 300 swimmers were on the start list, 13 failed to show which I have to say is disappointing, as there were swimmers still on the reserve list who would have loved to have had the opportunity. That a side, it meant that 287 started the swim, which saw some extremely fast flowing spring tides at the start line. Despite the extremely challenging conditions only two swimmers did not complete their distance, so all in all a tremendous achievement all round.

DSCN1461_001As is customary with each swim now, we do encourage the swimmers to use the event to generate sponsorship for a charity of their own choosing. This year a staggering £23124.00 has been pledged to a large number of charities, which in itself is an amazing achievement and makes the hard work that goes into organising the whole event even more worthwhile. A list of all the charities that will be benefit from the 2015 swim is shown at the bottom of this article.

As with every Brownsea Swim, we have to give a big shout out to all the Marshals, the Guys and Girls in the safety boats and on the paddle craft without whom, the event would not take place. There were 35 marshals, 54 paddlers 12 safety boats with at least 2 crew in each one, plus the Half Swim Finish Team, add all that up and you have over 100 people who gave up there time to enable the swim to take place.

A big thank you must also go to the National Trust -Brownsea Island and The John Lewis Partnership _ Castle who support the event 100% and its great to see their own swimmers taking part now. Lastly but not least the Brownsea Island Ferry company that support us and assist with getting the swimmers and marshals to and form the island every year.

dhpThe official photographer David Beater has all the photographs available to view and purchase here, the password is Brownsea there are some great photos there and its well worth a look – go on treat yourself to a memento.

David has also published his own blog about the event as well which can be seen here.

2015 RESULTS

Times given below are [hr.min.sec]

Guy Giles led the field home for the 5th year running, in a slightly slower time than previous years  of [ 1.19.05 ],  I said it was a tough one 🙂 though still very respectable, to win Overall and win the Mens Wetsuit Full Distance Category.

Oliver Wilkinson came in a minute behind [ 1.20.22 ] to claim the Mens Non Wetsuit Cetegory for the 4th Year running

Katie Nimmo was close on Oliver’s heels literally, to claim the Ladies Wetsuit Cateogry [  1.20.30 ] for the 3rd year in a row.

Sarah Wylie colmpleted the category winners of the full distance by finishing in [ 1.30.33 ] to win the Ladies Non Wetsuit Category for the 4th year in a row.

The Half Distance Wetsuit Category was won by Tom Francis in a time of [ 1.27.16 ] on behalf of BattleBack.

Sam Ball (14yrs of age) won the Half Distance Wetsuit Category on belhalf of one of our local Life Saving Clubs – Branksome Surf Life Saving Club in a time of [ 0.48.57 ].

The table below is a list of the top 3 placings for each Category for the 2015 Swim – congratulations!

Ladies Non Wetsuit (Full Dist)
101MissSarahWylieN/A1.30.331st
103MrsHannahWiltshirePoole Swimming Club1.34.532nd
105MissTashaMoreyN/A1.36.133rd
Ladies Wetsuit (Full Dist)
201MissKatieNimmoCheltenham Swimming & Waterpolo Club1.20.301st
208MissHelenOneileZoom Tri Club1.30.062nd
204MissAmandaReadRg Active Blueseventy1.30.163rd
Mens Non Wetsuit (Full Dist)
301MrOliverWilkinsonGloucester Masters1.20.221st
302MrMarcNewmanEDOWSC1.30.022nd
303MrAndrewHuckleWycombe District1.30.333rd
Mens Wetsuit (Full Dist)
401MrGuyGilesTORQ Swimming1.19.051st
413MrNigelWoodsNewpot Pagnell Swim Club1.23.532rd
411MrJohnSmithKenilworth Masters Swimming Club1.27.243rd
Non Wetsuit (Half Dist)
13MrTomFrancisBattleBack1.27.161st
14MrJohnHuntingtonBattleback1.33.032nd
Wetsuit (Half Dist)
3MrSamBallBranksome Chine Surf Life Saving Club0.48.571st
4MissBethanyCassonN/A0.49.272nd
7MrMarkHutchinsonN/A0.57.253rd

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The table below list the Charities that will benefit from this years swim

TOTAL RAISED BY 2015 Brownsea Swim £23,124.00
Age UK EssexDavid Sheldrick Wildlife TruNueva Esperanza, NicaraguastPAU Southampton
AlzheimersDog TrustProstate Cancel UK
British Heart FoundationDove House SchoolRLSS Poole Lifeguard
British Heart FoundationH4HRonald McDonald
Cancer ResearchLewis ManningRoyal Navy and Royal Marines Charities
Canine PartnersMacmillanSalvation Army
CAPMarine ConservationSnowdrop
Cash for KidsMental Health FoundationStroke Association
Children's Adventure Farm FundMontacute Special SchoolThe Parkinson's Society
CoPSMudeford RangersTree of Hope
COSMICNational TrustWarminster Swimming Club
Cystic FibrosisNueva Esperanza, Nicaragua