Resolutions provide boost to Windermere swim event
Last updated at 14:51, Monday, 02 January 2012
MORE than 6,000 people have already signed up to take part in the UK’s biggest outdoor mass-participation swim six months ahead of the event.
Thousands of people have decided they will take the plunge in 2012 and get involved in the British Gas Great North Swim.
The popular event will be held in Windermere over the weekend of June 22 to 24.
Almost two-thirds of the 10,000 places have been filled with people making a fitness new year resolution to take part in the event.
They will swim a half-mile, one-mile or two-mile course in England’s largest lake.
The Lake District event attracts world-class swimmers, such as former Olympic medallist Cassie Patten and double Commonwealth Games gold medallist Dave Carry, who both competed in the elite race last year.
The swimmers will be cheered on by thousands of spectators invited to watch the action from the grandstand seating or on big screens set around the lake over the weekend.
Since open water swimming returned to the Olympic programme at the 2008 Games in Beijing, the sport has become increasingly popular with club and recreational swimmers. The British Gas Great Swim Series, which features five open water swims in Greater Manchester, London, Suffolk and Glasgow, as well as Cumbria, has captured the imaginations of swimmers of all abilities across the UK.
More than 20,000 swimmers took part in a British Gas Great Swim event in 2011, many raising money for a host of charities, while others tried to beat their personal best times, or newcomers were content with taking on the challenge to get fit while training for their open water debut.
Details about the British Gas Great North Swim can be found at www.greatswim.org.
First published at 13:11, Monday, 02 January 2012
Published by http://www.walneylocal.co.uk
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