On the eve of the inaugural Great London Swim, British Gas was unveiled as the title sponsor of the Great Swim series.
The British Gas Great Swim series is made up of one mile open-water swims taking place in four venues across the UK: London, Scotland, Windermere and Suffolk. Over 10,000 swimmers of all abilities will make a splash this summer, including Olympians, celebrities, triathletes, club and fun swimmers. The events will be televised on Channel 4 in late September.
2008 saw the first staging of the Great Swim flagship event, the Great North Swim in Windermere. The inaugural event attracted thousands of entrants, and this year has more than doubled in size, reaching its entry limit of 6,000 swimmers within less than a month of opening. It is the UK’s biggest open-water swim and has been voted 5th best open-water swim in the world after just one staging.
British Gas recently pledged £15 million over a six year partnership with British Swimming. The deal, signed in March, supports all levels of the sport from the paddling pool to the podium. Earlier this month, British Gas launched its British Gas Pools for Schools programme on London’s Southbank and its intention to get 10,000 non-swimmers into the pool within a year.
Rick Vlemmicks, Director of Marketing at British Gas said: "At British Gas we know that swimming is important to our customers as well as the nation. We are passionate about driving participation in the sport and believe swimming should be open to all, from World Champions to recreational swimmers to kids learning to swim in schools. Innovative events like the British Gas Great Swim series will play an important role in supporting our Paddling Pool to Podium vision for swimming in Britain.”
The British Gas Great London Swim is the first event in the programme and will take place at the Royal Victoria Dock on Saturday August 15. Over 1,000 swimmers, including five of the six Beijing 10k open-water Olympic Medallists, will have the rare opportunity to swim against the striking urban background of Canary Wharf and The O2 arena.
Some of the world’s top swimmers including, Keri-Anne Payne, Cassie Patten, Stephanie Rice, David Davies and Tomas Lurz, will battle it out for first place in the elite race, which will take place in the morning.
Colin Hill, Event Director commented: “Our vision for Great Swim is to inspire people into trying outdoor swimming for the first time as well as having the world’s best competing in the same event. Confirming the likes of Keri-Anne and Cassie into the British Gas Great London Swim will hopefully inspire all of those thinking about taking part to sign up and be part of this world class series of events.”
The event has also captured the imagination of personalities including Capital Radio DJ Roberto, self-styled adventurer and Sky Sports journalist, Julian Crabtree and Bulgarian Peter Stoychev, the fastest person to swim across the Channel in an impressive 6 hours and 57 minutes.
Crabtree will be attempting to swim every wave of each Great Swim which would total 48 miles, or the equivalent of swimming the English Channel and back.
The elite women’s race will start at 8.30am and the elite men’s race at 9.00am. Following this, groups of approximately 200 swimmers will enter the water, with a one hour interval between each wave.
