As I’m writing this we are almost two weeks out to the main event of the sport of swimrun, the ÖTILLÖ World Championships. Without doubt the most competitive race of the sport, ÖTILLÖ WC attracts the best athletes of all categories. Rumour has it that some of the teams that have been close or on podium last year have made Monday September 3 their highest priority for 2018, setting aside everything else.
Many are the teams returning for another shot where the heavy-weights fight it out, to improve on their previous efforts. With two weeks left, gradual tapering would set in for many of you, leaving time for last thoughts on equipment, race-day nutrition and race planning. Wouldn’t it be perfect if there would be a tool to help you with atleast some of that and add extra psych for the big day?
Enter Swimrun Watch — statistics and analytics for fans and athletes of competitive swimrun racing! I started working on this project almost a month ago and now is the time to reveal it and give you guys a chance to try it. Hopefully, it will be fun and maybe even useful for your pacing and race planning! Which teams are strong swimmers? Which die towards the end? The answers are in the data. Go find out!
Jesper Svensson (SWE) exiting the water with Daniel Hansson (SWE) on draft on their way to win 2017 World Champs. Jesper’s streak continued on for a recent win at Ironman Brazil. Photo: Jakob Edholm / ÖTILLÖ.
The men’s race played out as it usually does when you are up against Daniel Hansson. Very tight up until Ornö Church where Daniel and Jesper put the hammer down on their competition and went surprisingly fast over the very demanding islets separating Ornö and the finishing island Utö.
Women’s podium of the Swimrun World Championships 2017 with winners Kristin Larsson (SWE) and Annika Ericsson (SWE) — again! Photo: Jakob Edholm / ÖTILLÖ.
Swimrun Watch reveals winners Campz/Addnature managed to keep a wire-to-wire lead and compared to Orca Women they where only slower on one split — the home stretch uphill. All other green, indicating split advantage. However, that made no difference to the podium.
Adriel Young (AUS) and Eva Nyström (SWE) on their way to win the 2017 World Champs. Photo: Jakob Edholm / ÖTILLÖ.I hope team Apollo Sports/Head Swimming of Staffan Björklund (SWE) and Marika Wagner (SWE) got reports along the way because the race for first place in the mixed category was a nail biter. At Kvinnholmen about half-way Thule Crew had an almost 17 min lead but from there on it all went south, loosing time on every split. Had the race been a kilometer or two longer, Staffan and Marika would have won. But that didn’t happen and the strong-minded Eva Nyström (SWE) would hopefully smile following what most likely was some serious suffering, landing in the medical tent right after crossing the line.
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