Record numbers take to the water at the Ecover Blue Mile
The sun shone on ‘Super Saturday’ at the 2013 Ecover Blue Mile, as hundreds of people took to the water off Plymouth’s historic Barbican to raise money for the Marine Conservation Society.
A record number of people signed up to take part in this year’s event, which saw almost 300 enthusiasts swim, kayak and stand-up paddle (SUP) a mile from The Mayflower Steps and Commercial Wharf to the Hoe near Tinside Pool and back again.
With heavy rain and high winds forecast for the second day of the Ecover Blue Mile on Sunday, all the major water sport events were switched to Saturday, making for a packed day of action on the water.
Among those taking part in the ‘fast’ swim on Saturday morning were 64 members of Plymouth Leander Swimming Club. With star club member, Olympic and World Breaststroke Champion Ruta Meilutyte cheering them on, the swimmers completed the mile in double-quick time. The winner, Reece Worth, did it in an amazing time of 21:04 minutes! The first woman home in 22:45 was another young Plymouth Leander swimmer, Charlotte Hill.
In the first swim ‘wave’ of the day, Stoke Damerel Community College science teacher John Trudgett came home first – ahead of his colleague Tim Cresswell, who’s best known as one of the ‘Three Hungry Boys’ in the Channel Four TV series.
John said: “That was the best way to spend a Saturday morning! The training has obviously paid off!” Tim, meanwhile, blamed his beard for slowing him down!
BBC Springwatch presenter Maya Plass, who is the Ecover Blue Mile schools ambassador, also completed the one-mile swim and said: “I loved it!”
The afternoon events featured kayak and SUP races, with a guest appearance in both disciplines from C2 slalom canoe Olympic gold medallist Tim Baillie. Tim’s wife Sarah – an international canoe competitor for Canada – also took part and they made it a 1-2 in the kayak race, with Tim just pipping Sarah to the finish line! The SUP event was won by Phil Ellery, with Tim finishing runner-up.
The winners of our Ecover Blue Mile photo competition, Jason Alderson from Kent and Emma Sheppard from Oxfordshire, were invited to take part in the kayak event and they did brilliantly, with Emma finishing third behind Tim and Sarah, and Jason finishing sixth.
Saturday afternoon also saw the Corporate Team Challenge, where each of the three team members takes on one of the disciplines; and the Aquatriathlon, a gruelling event in which competitors complete a mile in all three of the sports. The winner of the Aquatriathlon was Ben Fisher.
The Corporate Team Challenge was won by the Ecover Blue Mile team! It consisted of event organiser Conrad Humphreys (SUP), Katia Vastaiu (swim) and polar explorer, deep sea diver and presenter of the BBC TV series Oceans, Paul Rose.
With the main events all taking place on Saturday, there was an opportunity on Sunday morning for people to take part in SUP and kayak taster sessions from Commercial Wharf, with a £2 donation to the event’s charity, the Marine Conservation Society. The predicted rain then duly arrived early on Sunday afternoon.
Conrad Humphreys said the event had been a huge success: “To see so many people enjoying the water was just great! I’d like to congratulate everyone who took part – they’re the stars of the show.
“I’d also like to thank them for raising money for our charity, the Marine Conservation Society. The MCS does brilliant work for our seas, beaches and marine life and we’re delighted to support them.”
Andy Bool, head of fundraising at MCS, said: “It’s been great to see so many people enjoying themselves in the sea and at the same time raising funds to protect our marine environment and helping to ensure that many more people can enjoy the sea in the future.”
As well as the action on the water, there was also a range of conservation, environment and education activities in the Ecover Blue Mile village on Commercial Wharf.
The Marine Conservation Society brought along one of their mascots, Larry Lobster, as part of their interactive display, and staff were on hand to talk to visitors about what everyone can do to help the ‘blue’ environment.
Event title sponsors, Ecover, handed out free samples of their ecological cleaning produce, while Plymouth University’s ‘Plastics Lab’ also proved popular with visitors, who were shown how the marine environment is being damaged by debris. Two ‘Football World Cup’ robots from the university’s Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems were also winners with the public.
Full results and timings for all participants can be found online here.
