Alfred Nikodem Memorial 2012 – First Prague Cold-Water Swimming Club

Alfred Nikodem Memorial 2012 results

Updated 29 December 2012

Thanks to the wonderful work of the entire club, we successfully staged the largest and most traditional event in the Czech Winter Swimming Cup. Our reward was a new record for participation in a single race: 245 swimmers took part in this year’s Alfred Nikodem Memorial, compared with 230 in 2011! What will next year bring — another record?

Seventy I. PKO swimmers braved this year’s 4°C water and very strong current: seventeen swam the longest distance, 750 metres, thirty-six the 300 metres and seventeen the 100 metres. It is a pity that we will not match that turnout at other races this season, and that more of us do not swim the longer distances.

Alongside the participation record, Petr Tomášek gave us victory over 750 metres, and we earned the most points in the club competition. What we did not win was the additional Prague 1 Mayor’s Cup, which we had secretly hoped for after our earlier successes in the Czech Cup. Fides Brno took that trophy home!

At the opening ceremony, we honoured PaedDr. Jan Novák on his seventieth birthday this year. The second Czechoslovak swimmer to conquer the English Channel, he is a member of our club and was also the day’s chief referee.

As usual, the results are linked at the top of the article. Race photos appear below.

Thank you to everyone who helped organise the event.

And we really couldn’t have done it without honey!

P.S. The next races in Prague are Braník Ice on 2 February 2013 and the Czech breaststroke championships in Podolí Swimming Stadium’s outdoor pool on 2 March 2013.

Links:

Photo gallery (photos supplied by Jaroslav Kroš www.jaroslavkros.cz):