On Friday afternoon, 1 October 2021, we gathered at the clubhouse and its surroundings for our traditional “triple event”.
As usual, the first discipline was a work party, attended by 46 members. Volunteering for the club is a membership responsibility and part of a club life that extends beyond swimming. We cleaned and carried out small maintenance jobs in the clubhouse and garden, and, of course, prepared for winter. At a cold-water swimming club, that chiefly means sawing and splitting firewood. After a swim in icy water, dry radiant heat, alongside movement, is our preferred way to warm up. We are all looking forward to the clubhouse stove blazing again, after having so little chance to enjoy it last winter because of the COVID closure.
At 18:00 the second discipline began. Fifty-one members set off upstream on a 750-metre course to the turn before the bridge and back. The time trial lets everyone check their form before the winter swimming season and measure themselves against swimmers of similar ability. There were exciting battles throughout the field, not just among the favourites, whose performances rank among the country’s best. Recreational swimmers, many of them older members, also fought for every second right to the finish. Jirka Polanský was the fastest man in 11:53.86, followed two seconds later by his brother Vítek Polanský, with Josef Kysilka arriving roughly half a minute afterwards. Šárka Landsmannová was the fastest woman in 12:11.17 and third overall, immediately behind the Polanský brothers. Petra Johová was the second woman and Sáva Macourková third.
Finally came the third discipline, the reward for completing the first two: the campfire. It was a chance to discuss our swims, catch up on friends’ summer swimming and travel adventures, laugh and sing. Michal Kohoutek and newly successful English Channel swimmer Michal Štengl took up the guitars first, followed later by Hanka Dvorská and Jana Richterová. The repertoire was wonderfully varied: Czech campfire songs, folk, songs from the Semafor theatre and tunes whose origins no one quite remembers. We were reluctant to leave the fire until late that evening.
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