WILDERNESS WATER SPORT NEWS - The Torpedo SwimRun Wild took place over two days in the Wilderness last weekend. Teams from Llandudno Surf Lifesaving in Cape Town dominated both the men's and women's podiums, and also delivered the mixed team winner.
Click here for a photo gallery.
It started with a 6km prologue on Friday followed by a 26km main event on Saturday, made up of multiple segments of swimming, running and "swambling", which is a rugged combination of swimming and scrambling over rocks.
Calvin Amor and Nik Martin were the men's overall winners, with Rob Tweddle and Rob Shaff second. All four athletes are Llandudno Surf Lifesavers.
Port Elizabeth triathlete brothers Keegan and Jarryd Cooke, having finished two minutes clear of other athletes in the prologue event on the Friday, were looking like strong candidates to take the win, but a wrong turn took them off course and they did well to come third overall.
Both the top two women's teams are also from Llandudno Surf Lifesaving. Jamie Day and Lauren Granger were first, beating previous Torpedo SwimRun Cape winners, Bianca Tarboton and Linda Detering, into second place. In third place were Carla Farina and Su-Yen Thornhill. The winning mixed team was Alessandra Bayly and Johann Minnaar.
Richard McMartin, Torpedo SwimRun co-founder, says they are thrilled at how the event went off. "After the success of the first two Cape events that include tough cold ocean swims, it was great to see the format work equally well in our first freshwater SwimRun. We have some of the most beautiful coastlines, waterways, beaches and forests in South Africa, and I believe we have the potential to be the SwimRun capital of the world."
Originating in Sweden, this new sport ditches triathlon's flashy gear for off-road and open-water adventure. Raced along coastal and inland waterways, the route is designed around the natural environment with distances varying from race to race. With multiple swim and run segments and athletes racing self-sufficiently - they swim and run in the same gear - it's the wildest sport going.
Growing rapidly in popularity, there are now 450 races around the globe. Torpedo launched the first SwimRun in Cape Town in 2017, with a national series rolling out from 2018.
'We bring you the latest Garden Route news'
