Escape From Spike Island Swim – Sunday August 7th

The forty one swimmers before the start

Despite the horrible intermittent weather conditions, the 5th annual ‘Escape From Spike Swim’ took place on Sunday, when forty one swimmers from around the country braved the cold water, hazardous currents and predicted thunderstorms to take part in this one mile open water swim from Spike Island in Cork Harbour to Cobh in an effort to raise funds for the Lions Club. This was a Lions Club International insured event and before the race swimmers were ferried to Spike Island by several small high-speed boats and ribs after a short safety briefing by event organiser Niall O Crualaoich.

The race got off to a perfect start when swimmers entered the Spike waters at 11.38am with Ned Denison leading the field and being first across the finishing line in a time of 00:23:45, shaving 49 seconds from Brian O’Shea’s winning time of 00.24.34 last year.

Overall winner Ned Denison in a time of 00:23:45

Speaking with Event Safety Coordinator Joanne O Crualaoich she explained that ‘All swimmers should have at least swum in the Open Water environment this year and be capable of swimming the distance before their entry was accepted. Obviously we would have liked more swimmers but we were very conscious of safety so the number was limited. We’re delighted to be able to do this now very popular annual event and once again the people of Cobh were great in coming out to support us.’

Overall Winner – Ned Denison
First Male In Wetsuit – Jim Shalloo
First Female In Wetsuit – Marie Barry
First Female In Togs – Ellen O’Brien

Cobh Edition also have over 160 photographs of the swim on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cobhedition

Race winner Ned Denison with First Male In Wetsuit Jim Shaloo right)

First Female In Wetsuite, Marie Barry

First Female In Togs, Ellen O'Brien (AGAIN.....)