This Saturday’s Castle Circuit in Choceň was the final January round of the Czech Winter Swimming Cup. With a maximum distance of 500 metres and untimed swims, Choceň usually attracts the smallest field of the season, and this year was no exception. Numbers were also reduced because most swimmers had already tried part of the course in December: with almost the entire Orlice frozen, the planned Peliny Park race had been replaced by a non-competitive swim on the January course. Fifty swimmers attended this non-competitive event, including twelve from I. PKO — both the lowest figures of the current season.
Nine of our swimmers tackled the longest distance, 500 metres: Jack Bright, Jakub Formánek, Adolf Goebel, Miroslav Hess, Vladimír Kolář, Jaroslav Kolář, Jan Podlaha, Michael Štěpán and Martin Ullwer.
250 metres was completed by Tomáš Pilát, Jan Slabý and Lubomír Vít.
As usual, we had no representative in the 100 metres.
Choceň will be followed this Saturday by our second home event in Prague-Braník. For the first time in 2013, swimmers will have a one-kilometre course available. After last year’s −14°C air, the current forecast suggests the opposite extreme this time: high temperatures well above zero.