The Engadin Swimrun
First Swimrun World Champs a Great Success
News Release / 21.07.2014
In the stunning Engadin valley in the Swiss Alps, one hundred teams of two took on the first spectacular edition of Engadin Swimrun. A massive challenge with a mix of trail running and swimming for a total of 52 kilometres in mountain terrain. The strong athletes negotiated many hours of racing at altitude, 1 500 metres of vertical climb, cold water, and demanding mountain trails in the beautiful alpine landscape.
Swede Björn Englund and Canadian Paul Krochak, Team Head Swimming, took a well-deserved win, handling the tough race course with perfect tactics and staying strong all the way. They crossed the finish line at Silvaplana with the imposing time of 06:28:10, beating the second placed team, Mike Thoren and Jesper Svensson, with over half an hour! Multisport champion Carolin Holmqvist of Sweden took an impressive third place overall with her partner Lelle Moberg.
For the first swimrun race outside of Sweden, 200 competitors (in teams of two) from 17 nationalities experienced a very tough physical challenge in the picture-perfect “Heidi”-like landscape of the Engadin valley. Besides a killing vertical gain of almost 1500 metres, the 52 kilometre course consisted of 46 km trail running (in your wetsuit) and 6,5 km open-water swimming through seven mountain lakes (in your running shoes) with a water temperature at around 10 degrees C. The competitors had 17 changes between running and swimming throughout the course, which is why you keep the wetsuit and shoes on for the entire race. The course was tough and long, the water cold and many teams abandoned for this first edition. Winners Englund and Krochak are the reigning world champions in the sport of swimrun (winner of ÖTILLÖ 2013) and were well prepared. They were very impressed by the tough race course.
“Honestly, it was really tough. I was struggling hard the last 90 minutes and wouldn’t have survived without my team partner,” said Paul Krochak at the finish line. Partner Englund added:
“We were here to win and we did. We are not so used to running steep hills, so we tried not to go too hard up hill. It was really tough on the thighs both up and down hill. The water was quite cold and we did suffer a bit of hyperthermia a couple of times…You really have to handle the elements. The scenery was amazing and one had to make sure to take a little bit of time to look up and enjoy the landscape.”
Throughout the whole course the competitors could just lift up their heads and get the full alpine experience: snowy mountain tops, emerald blue lakes, beautiful trails, lush, green mountain meadows full of flowers, perfect pine forests and picturesque alpine chalets. The course passed the famous alpine village St. Moritz, as well as the genuine mountain towns Maloja, Sils, Champfer, to finally finish in Silvaplana.
Most of the competing athletes have strong triathlon, running, swimming or multisport backgrounds but not that many are used to running in their wetsuit and swimming in their shoes! As the sport swimrun has gained huge popularity in Sweden the last years, the 25 competing Swedish teams at Engadin Swimrun definitely had a slight advantage with more swimrun experience, but tackling the discipline in a mountain environment was totally new for them as well.
Race organizer Mats Skott (SWE) comments on the first edition of Engadin Swimrun:
“The race was a great success. We were very happy with the course, which was demanding but truly beautiful. Engadin Swimrun is the perfect match to ÖTILLÖ, as a sister swimrun event in the mountains! We have had a lot of positive feedback and many future competitors are interested in the race and the sport of swimrun. Swimrun is growing and has a bright future ahead. The date for next year’s Engadin Swimrun is already set to 11 July 2015. We can’t wait!”
Engadin Swimrun is a sturdy qualifier to the World Championship of Swimrun, ÖTILLÖ, the original swimrun race in the Stockholm archipelago, considered one of the toughest one-day races in the world (see further down for more information). The top 3 men, top 3 mixed, and top 2 women at Engadin Swimrun qualified to ÖTILLÖ, September 1, 2014.
Top results Engadin Swimrun, 12 July, 2014
Men
1. Björn Englund (SWE) & Paul Krochak (CAN), Team Head Swimming: 06:28:10
2. Mike Thoren (SWE) & Jesper Svensson (SWE), Team Enervit Sweden: 07:00:15
3. Klas Wiréhn (SWE) & Henrik Wahlberg (SWE), Team SurfSpot: 07:24:35
Mixed
1. Carolin Holmqvist (SWE) & Lelle Moberg (SWE), Team Säkra Stockholm Öst AB: 07:07:29
2. Laetitia Pibis (FRA) & Gerald Hofstadler (AUT), Team Irgendwie & Sowieso: 07:44:39
3. Lucie Croissant (FRA) & JC Kunz (FRA), Team Adidas Triatl Aix: 08:03:22
Women
1. Hanna Slotte (SWE) & Natalia Muller (SUI), Team two single ladies: 08:34:36
See complete result list here: http://engadinswimrun.r.mikatiming.de/2014/?pgid=&pid=start
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