- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: CHAMPION BOG SNORKELLER MAKES IT THREE TIMES IN A ROW
- Date: 30th August 2004
- Summary: (L!3) LLANWRTYD WELLS, WALES, UK (AUGUST 30, 2004) (REUTERS SNORKELLER WEARING INFLATABLE SUMO WRESTLER SUIT AND SWIM FINS STUMBLES THROUGH CROWD OF SPECTATORS BOG SNORKELLING PARTICIPANTS IN SILLY SWIMMING COSTUMES LAUGHING SNORKELLER IN SUMO SUIT PADDLES AWAY FROM CAMERA THROUGH MUDDY WATER OF TRENCH CUT INTO BOG- CROWD LAUGHS SPECTATORS CHEERING AND LAUGHING SUMO SN
- Embargoed: 14th September 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LLANWRTYD WELLS, WALES, UK
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky,Sports
- Reuters ID: LVA24HKEGE5KJVKNTS6EVUAE8PMN
- Story Text: Champion bog snorkeller makes it three times in a row.
A teenager has beaten around 140 competitors from all over the world to be crowned World Champion Bog Snorkeller - for the third time in a row.
Seventeen year old Philip John of Brackla, Bridgend in south Wales swam a muddy trench faster than anyone else on Monday (August 30) to win a trophy, a cash prize and a year's supply of ice-cream.
The competition took place in Llanwrtyd (pron: thlan-ooer-tid) Wells in Wales which also plays host every year to the man versus horse race.
To bog snorkel the competitors must swim up and down a 133 metre trench that is filled with muddy, weedy water to a depth of one metre. The water runs into the drainage ditch from the surrounding fields, is faintly sulphurous and home to frogs and other aquatic life.
Official rules stated that entrants to the snorkelling competition must not use conventional swimming strokes but instead rely on flipper power only.
Competitors also had to meet strict new time limits, imposed for the first time last year, to raise the standard.
Philip John, whose uncle has also won the competition three times, completed the course in one minute 38 seconds - just three seconds longer than his world record beating time of one minute 35 seconds, achieved last year. John is an international swimmer who went to the Olympic trials earlier this year.
Further down the listings came a variety of competitors who were not taking the event so seriously.
There was a man in an inflatable sumo wrestler suit, men dressed as women who swam carrying a handbag throughout the swim, and an Australian wearing kangaroo pyjamas.
Ian Shakespeare, one of the men with a handbag, said the event was deceptive.
"Hard work- a lot harder than it looks," he said. "It really is quite an incredible event. You get halfway and think - "I can't go any further" especially not carrying a handbag". Pub locals hatched the idea for the event one night in 1986 during a brainstorm for a local charity fund-raising initiative. Although there are some rules the main purpose is to have fun. The judges gave their blessing to the competitor in the inflatable sumo outfit, which the referees decided was "appropriate swimwear".
All funds raised from the championships will be donated to the Mid Wales division of the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Trust. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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