STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 4 SEPTEMBER 2017
The 12th edition of the dawn-to-dusk ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship faced some of the toughest race conditions to date in the Stockholm archipelago. One hundred and forty-eight teams of two from 20 different nations battled it out hour after hour as winds of 20 knots wreaked havoc on the 10 km of open water swim sections, while the 65 km of trail running provided no mercy either as slashing rain made the slippery terrain even more technical. Still, the Men’s and Mixed categories were defiantly competitive until the Finish, with teams pushing the pace across the 75 km racecourse until the end.
- Winner Men: Daniel Hansson and Jesper Svensson (SWE), Team Swedish Armed Forces, 7:58:06 (course record w 1 minute!)
- Winner Mixed: Eva Nyström (SWE) and Adriel Young (AUS), Thule Crew/Trispot.se 9:01:31
- Winner Women: Kristin Larsson and Annika Ericsson (SWE), Team Addnature/Campz, 10:03:32
The high winds and rough Baltic Sea seemed to pick up across the day as teams struggled to adjust to the ever slippery exits from the water and technical running portions of the gruelling ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship course. 2016 ÖTILLÖ Men’s World Champion Daniel Hansson and his new partner Jesper Svensson managed to pull away around 70-km mark from the other two teams – Jonas Ekman and Lars Ekman; Oscar Olsson and Martin Flinta – who had all been within a minute of each other since the 6 am start. Daniel and Jesper set a new course record at 7:58:06, one minute faster than last year’s first record under eight hours!
“Our tactic was to keep on eye on the lead, and pull away at the right moment at the end, and we managed to stick to our plan,” Daniel Hansson explained, although he said they had no intention of breaking last year’s sub 8-hour record. “We arrived at Utö and saw that it was possible to beat last year’s time, so we pushed all the way to the end.”
The Mixed Team category provided an equally thrilling day of racing. Australian Adriel Young and Swede Eva Nyström also held onto their 2016 World Champions Title, finishing at 9:01:31, less than one minute ahead of Staffan Björklund and Marika Wagner, who were fifteen-minutes behind the leaders at the six-hour point, an astonishing comeback.
“I’ve never seen someone dig in so deep,” Adriel Young said of his teammate, who has not been able to run over the last four weeks due to injury. “We had no tactic. The tether is like an umbilical cord and talk to each other through it.”
The undefeated Women’s World Champion team of Annika Ericsson and Kristin Larsson demonstrated once again their impressive athleticism, finishing with a time just over 10-hours, forty minutes ahead of the next team.
The 150 competing teams in pairs at the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship are selected through merits and qualifying races. The waiting list is long and for every competitor the ÖTILLÖ is a very special experience, racing with the elements of nature is unique – running on rugged trails, slippery rocks, and in fairy tale forests while swimming stretches of water in the Baltic Sea to get to the next island.
As a competitor you need to be well prepared for such an extreme endurance challenge, race it wisely and find a pace that will take you all the way to the finish line before dark. Racing in pairs helps secure safety and allows competitors to excel if the team manages to use its strengths sensibly to get stronger.
Top 3 result ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship 2017
Men
- Daniel Hansson and Jesper Svensson (SWE), Team Swedish Armed Forces, 7:58:06
- Jonas Ekman and Lars Ekman (SWE), Sailfish team Bröderna Bäver, 8:06:40
- Oscar Olsson and Martin Flinta (SWE), Team Löplabbet, 08:07:40
Mixed
- Eva Nyström (SWE) and Adriel Young (AUS), Thule Crew/Trispot.se 9:01:31
- Marika Wagner and Staffan Björklund (SWE), Apollo Sports / Head Swimming 9:02:09
- Diane Sadik and Rickard Berglund (SWE), Swimrunshop.com, 9:08:52
Women
- Kristin Larsson and Annika Ericsson (SWE), Team Addnature/Campz, 10:03:32
- Fanny Danckwardt and Sarah Hansson (SWE), Team Orca Women, 10:49:14
- Camilla Landén and Lina Byman (SWE) Trispot’s Triathleter, 11:03:05
About Swimrun and ÖTILLÖ
Swimrun is the fast growing sport where you in teams of two alternate trail running and open water swimming along a marked course. There is no time to lose – you run in your wetsuit and swim in your shoes! It is a unique sport and experience as you always race with a partner and the race course is in wild nature. The ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship (ÖTILLÖ meaning island to island in Swedish) is the original swimrun race, renowned as one of the toughest one-day races in the world.
ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Series 2017
Six qualifying races to ÖTILLÖ:
- ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Hvar, Croatia, 2 April -17 First edition!
- ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Utö, Sweden, 28 May -17
- ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Isles of Scilly, UK, 17 June -17
- ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Engadin, Switzerland, 9 July -17
- ÖTILLÖ Swimrun 1000 Lakes, Germany, 1 Oct -17 (qualifier to ÖTILLÖ 2018)
At each World Series event a sprint race is organised the previous day.
Media Contact
Josefine Ås, pr@otilloswimrun.com, +33 6 79 04 23 46
For TV images / news cuts please contact Josefine Ås
