ÖTILLÖ
New Record at ÖTILLÖ Swimrun
News Release / 02.09.2014
Winners Moberg and Hansson, Team Milebreaker of Sweden, crushed last year’s course record by 19 minutes with a winning time of 8 hours 16 minutes and 19 seconds at ÖTILLÖ, the 75 km long Swimrun World Championship in the Swedish archipelago.
The pace was fast at one of the world’s toughest one-day races and the fight for first was tight all the way, between the winners and last year’s champions Björn Englund and Paul Krochak. The 240 competitors started at the island of Sandhamn at dawn at 05:55 CET and finished in the afternoon or late evening at the island of Utö after having run and swum over and between 26 islands for endless hours.
The athletes were exposed to the first big test at the first long swim shortly after the start, 1700 metres in 11-12 degrees water… Then the challenge just went on for hours and hours. ÖTILLÖ is a gruelling course on island trails, slippery rocks, cold water and currents, and 75 km is long even for the fittest. The competitors had to fight the time cut offs to make it to the finish line before dark.
Perfect conditions of this year’s edition with sun and calm water, a longer experience of the sport and tougher competition resulted in a very fast race. Strong athletes from 22 nationalities took on the challenge, however the Swedish domination was clear as Swedes have a longer history with swimrun competitions.
The winners Moberg and Hansson have had all their focus on ÖTILLÖ and the victory was determined by smart tactics, strong physics and a lot of will power. They pushed themselves to the limit and were totally exhausted at the finish line but elated with their achievement and winning the prestigious event.
“It hurts all over but it doesn’t matter! The competition is so tough and the top teams train all year to perform at this race. Every year the pace gets faster, it’s crazy. We raced tactically and it paid off. We let Englund and Krochak pass us early in the race and we put the pressure on. We took over the lead after about five hours and managed to gain. You really need to work well as a team and we’ve been pulling each other. Two are faster than one! We were totally drained for the last hour but we just had to get going and finish,” said World Champion Lelle Moberg, who has raced in four previous editions and won 2012.
The strongest lady in the start field Ulrika Eriksson, finished with the time 9:52:11, in a mixed team, Team 2XU with Jonas Udehn. The fastest women’s team was mother and daughter Bibben Nordblom and Charlotta Nilsson, Team Puppy TS, finishing at 10:26:31.
About Swimrun / ÖTILLÖ – the Swimrun World Championship
Swimrun is the fast growing sport where you alternate trail running and open water swimming. There is no time to lose – you run in your wetsuit and swim in your shoes! ÖTILLÖ is the world’s longest swimrun race and is renown as one of the toughest one-day races in the world.
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