Ecover Blue Mile's Super Saturday gets underway
Plymouth's Ecover Blue Mile events got underway on Saturday. Organisers announced that there will be a ‘Super Saturday’, with all the major events taking place on the first day of the two-day event on 14-15 September.
The high winds and heavy rain forecast for the South West on Sunday means that the one-mile open water swim, kayak, stand-up paddling (SUP) and Corporate Team Challenge events have been brought forward to Saturday, when the weather forecast is for a dry day with some sunshine and light winds. The Aquatriathlon will also now take place on Saturday.
This year, a record number of 300 participants have signed up for the Ecover Blue Mile, which takes place off Plymouth Barbican. Most had signed up for the Saturday and the 60 people who’d registered to take part on Sunday have been invited to switch to ‘Super Saturday’.
There will still be lots of water sports on offer on Sunday. Kayak and SUP taster sessions will be available for members of the public to try, with a £2 donation to the event’s charity, the Marine Conservation Society. The sessions will be held in the safe and sheltered waters of the Barbican landing pontoon area.
The event village at Commercial Wharf, near the Mayflower Steps, will also be open as usual over the two days.
Event organiser Conrad Humphreys said: “The safety of participants is our number one priority and we don’t want to take any risks with the weather on Sunday.
“It does mean that we are able to provide taster sessions within the Barbican so this will actually mean more people taking part in the weekend’s watersports.
“Saturday will be just amazing! We’ll have around 300 people taking part in the Ecover Blue Mile events and we’ll also be staging both the Aquatriathlon and the Corporate Team Challenge as well. Plus we’ve got taster sessions in the morning. It’s going to be busy!”
Plymouth-based Olympic and World swimming champion Ruta Meilutyte will be at the event village from 10am to 12 noon on Saturday, signing autographs and cheering on 58 of her Plymouth Leander team-mates, who are all doing the one mile swim.
Slalom canoeist Tim Baillie, who won Olympic gold at London 2012, will be taking part in the kayak and SUP events on Saturday. Other faces to look out for include Olympic modern pentathlon silver medallist Heather Fell, who is the event commentator and reporter, and polar explorer and deep sea diver Paul Rose, who is best known for presenting the BBC TV series, Oceans.
This year’s Ecover Blue Mile Plymouth is part of the Ocean City Festival.
