18 MAY 2017
The fifth edition of ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Utö will seriously kick off the swimrun season in Scandinavia on 27-28 May. No less than 280 teams from 21 different nationalities have registered to the 43 km tough but magnificent ÖTILLÖ World Series event on 27 May. 73 teams from nine different nationalities are signed up for the sprint race the day before, on 27 May.
Follow the race live on social media 28 May: otilloswimrun.com/live
ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Utö – The Swedish Swimrun World Series event 28 May
The fifth edition of ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Utö will seriously kick off the swimrun season in Scandinavia on 27-28 May. No less than 280 teams from 21 different nationalities have registered to the 43 km tough but magnificent ÖTILLÖ World Series event on 27 May. 73 teams from nine different nationalities are signed up for the sprint race the day before, on 27 May.
Follow the race live on social media 28 May: www.otilloswimrun.com/live
ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Utö was the first ever qualifier to the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship, with its first edition held in 2013. Being the finishing island of ÖTILLÖ and the place where the whole swimrun movement started, it was a natural choice. The first year, in 2013, 45 teams signed up and 38 started. Four years later, for the fifth edition in 2017, there are around 350 teams signed up for the weekend.
There is no doubt on why the original swimrun bet by the Andersson brothers and their two friends was made at the island of Utö, situated in the southern part of the Stockholm archipelago, also called the “Island of Love”. The islands of Utö, Ålö and Rånö provide a dream landscape, with forests, trails, rocks, cliffs, sandy beaches, gravel roads and a beautiful, small community, which is all part of the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Utö playing field. The course consists of almost 38 km of trail running and 5,2 km open water swimming on 19 different swim sections. With a late spring the water will be cold in the Baltic Sea. But the swim stretches are shorter than at many other swimrun events, with the longest stretch being 600 metres.
Among the 560 competitors there are a lot of hot names from the swimrun scene. The two Women’s Swimrun World Champions will be racing against each other, Kristin Larsson with mixed teams’ World Champion Eva Nyström, and Annika Ericsson will be racing with her partner Elisabeth Pärsdotter Westman. They won Utö in 2016. In the mixed class, the exceptional Finish/Dutch couple Jasmina Glad Schreven and Thomas Schreven will be battling hard against Staffan Björklund and Marika Wagner and a whole armada of other great teams. The world’s top men’s teams will once again push the limits to reach top honours.
Not to be missed, the Original Four’s (the four friends who made the bet in the bar at Utö, which later became ÖTILLÖ and swimrun..) Jesper Andersson Mars will be racing in Saturday’s Sprint with his daughter (a second-generation swimrunner) Tova Ridderström, to defend their 2016 podium finish, and his brother Mats Andersson will be racing with the Women’s World Champion 2015, the Utö local Maja Tesch in Sunday’s World Series Race.
Eight top teams at ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Utö qualify to the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship, on 4 September 2017 in the Stockholm Archipelago; top 3 men, top 3 mixed, top 2 women.
Fast facts ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Utö 2017
- 5th edition, 28 May 2017
- Race course 43 km
- 38 km trail running
- 5,2 km open water swimming
- 19 swim sections
- Longest swim 600 metres
- Longest run 6,7 kilometres
- 277 registered teams from 21 different nationalities
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)
- ÖTILLÖ Swimrun XX – event to be officially confirmed, Nov -17 (qualifier to ÖTILLÖ 2018) First edition!
At each World Series event a sprint race is organised the previous day.
ÖTILLÖ The Swimrun World Championship
- 12th edition on 4 September 2017
- 75 km over and between 26 islands in the Stockholm Archipelago
- Renowned as one of the toughest one-day races in the world
Media Contact
Josefine Ås, pr@otilloswimrun.com, +33 6 79 04 23 46
For TV images / news cuts please contact Josefine Ås
