2008 Rottnest Bankwest Channel Swim

PaulNewsome · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2008 9:29 am

Dear All

Well, its a great start to week # 6 of our Half Ironman program with some great sporting results from over the weekend! We'll come back to the Rotto results in a mo...but in case you haven't already heard the amazing news that West Australian Eamon O'Sullivan absolutely smashed Alexander Popov's world 50m record for the freestyle event at the NSW Championships. O'Sullivan completed the distance in 21.56 seconds to become the fastest swimmer in the world...ever! Amazing. More news here: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h6e ... YXBjLGITmw What makes this accomplishment so special is Eamon's exemplary battle with injury over the last 2 years, remaining headstrong and focused on his goal of gold medal at the Beijing Olympics (he even played down the WR yesterday, saying that "he mustn't lose sight of the goal" - pretty inspirational if you ask me!!). He goes by the nickname of "The Silent Assassin" and whilst I'm not sure how 'silent' he'll keep himself after this result, his attitude is deserved of great admiration. This so-called "flying under the radar" (which I'm always talking about) is so necessary...as much as you should reward yourself for a good training session when these occur, the most important thing is to keep riding 'high' when you have a less-than-favourable session. Take last week for example...a lot of us felt pretty flat out there (me especially)...the true question though is whether we become dispondent and down about that or pick ourselves up and look forward to a good week this week...and for those of you down at running this morning, I could certainly see that spirit amongst ALL of you - so well done Team!

OK, official results are not yet out for the 2008 Rottnest Bankwest Channel Swim (a gruelling 19.5km channel crossing completed by 2100 swimmers in between 4 and 12 hours as either solo, duos or teams), however, I can confirm an absolutely outstanding result from our top-lane swimmer Mark Scanlon who finished 3rd overall in the event in just a shade over 5 hours!!! Mark can be seen in training action here: http://swimsmooth.blogspot.com/2007/11/ ... -only.html Two of our other top-lane swimmers (Judy Young and Rob Buckle) also had superb races to make it across to the island in 6h21 and 6h30 respectively for their first solo crossings. Well done chaps!

We had many people from the group compete in the duo and teams categories as well - I haven't heard any results from anyone else as yet apart from an excited test message from one very ecstatic Mary Tennants after her team made it all the way across - well done Mary! I would really appreciate everyone emailing me back as soon as you get chance to let me know how you went (times / places etc - any info you have), who you did it with, and a brief report of how you enjoyed the day...even if its just a couple of lines - we want to hear all about it!!! That includes those of you whom have just done 1-2-1 sessions with Paul if not with the whole squad.

PaulNewsome · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2008 9:31 am

Full results of this event can be see at: http://bluechip.racetectiming.com/

Our photos of the event can be found at http://www.theteamcore.com/photogallery.html

Cheers!

Paul

PaulNewsome · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:04 pm

Courtenay wrote:

Hi Paul –Elise, Cath Flethcher, Jackie Stenepries and myself had a great day out in a team. We did it in about 7.5 hours. We did 5 min rotations which worked well for us. We had fun and all pulled up really well post race and ready to go again!!! We were worried as we were hurtling down from Hillarys at 6am against the southerly winds – we all felt a bit sea sick and hadn’t even started the day – however a few seasick tablets later and heading west we were all in fine form. A couple of stingers along the way was the worst thing that happened – however after a summer of beach swimming we were all seasoned to that. A great day by all. Thanks for all the help with training! We were called the Mothership (as we have 13 kids between us), and listened to Led Zepplins “The Mothership” CD all the way across. Good Fun.

Cheers Courtenay

PaulNewsome · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:06 pm

Elise wrote:

Hi Paul,
Thanks for email. We are very excited about completing the swim in our team of 4. We ( Cath Fletcher, Courtenay Harris, Jackie Steinepreis and myself) completed the race in 7.5 hours. It was an amazing experience and one that would be good to repeat. We all pulled up well ( must have been all the great training sessions), so thankyou and will see you tomorrow. The news about Eamon Sullivan is just mind-blowing!
Cheers
Elise

PaulNewsome · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:07 pm

Andrew Maslen wrote:

Howdy Paul, We had a great day and managed to get their in just over 7 hours not super quick but still v happy with just making the distance in a duo. the best part was that I felt strong all the way through with your words "swim smoooooothe" running through my head for each stroke so thank you for all your coaching efforts I have really enjoyed the sessions ( and will continue to do so). I am traveling for work this week and part of next so will see you on THursday session next week.

Once again thanks for your coaching it made all the difference

roll on the next duo!!

PaulNewsome · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:08 pm

Stuart Gicquel wrote:

Hi Paul
yes great day!
6h 24m for our mixed team ...Clare and myself (plus two other surfing mates of mine who swim over at Beatty Park)
40mins slower than our 2005 effort ...but that year we had an easterly up the bum just about all day
and this year we definately swam a little more conservatively as we wanted to have some gas in the tank for what was f/cast to be crappy conditions

thanks for your inspiration...you are very good at what you do, we appreciate it greatly AND will be back for more!!

Stuart and Clare

PaulNewsome · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:09 pm

Mark Scanlon wrote:

hey mate
yer i came 4th as i was beaten by a bloody chick! hahaha
so 3rd in the guys and did it in 5hrs2min. didnt quite get under the 5hr mark like i hoped but given teh lumpy bumpy ride for teh first 10km im stoked!

all went pretty smoothly, hardest part was prob between 8km and 12km, but picked it up again from 12km to the end.

hope your pumped up for next year!!

PaulNewsome · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:10 pm

Trevor Magee wrote:

Paul,

My first fully bi-lateral Rotto swim! In fact I think I’m breathing better on my “unnatural” right side than my old “twist to the left” side. Hard to compare my individual performance against other swims, but I felt solid all day.

Cheers

Trev

PaulNewsome · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:10 pm

Jo Palmer wrote:

hey paul

)!

my duo partner and i did 7hrs 15. he hit the wall at 18km. given the training i did i surprisingly felt strong through to the finish (well until i swallowed water 400 metres from the finish as i cleaned my googles at the end so i could see where mark was to go catch him to finish together!)

PaulNewsome · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:11 pm

Ian Murray wrote:

Hi Paul

Trevor & I did 6hr 19min (and some seconds) in the team event. I think 23rd in our age category. The other two swimmers (Peter Symons - a few English Channel swims, solo's & duo's under his belt; and Richard Burt - a first timer like me). The conditions were great, could not have wished for better. Water 23 degrees, not much wind, no boating incidents with us (thank goodness). The day that makes you think that you could do a duo - but that thought dissipates quickly. Great support crew (under captain Chris Dale who swims in Bill's evening group) who kept us straight & rotating regularly.

Regards

Ian Murray

PaulNewsome · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:48 pm

Mary-Anne Paton wrote:

Many thanks Paul.
According to the bluechip site my duo (Flying Fish) 100+ mixed came first in our category at 6.21.55 which considering our relaxed approach to the swim (ie getting there as opposed to racing) is AOK with me.
So many thanks for your excellent coaching and support!
Cheers

Mary-Anne

PaulNewsome · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:49 pm

Mel Bradley wrote:

Hi Paul:
I was on Mary's team and she gets the gold star for attitude! How does she swim and smile at the same time? We had a great swim (except I got seasick for about 2 hours in the middle - I NEVER get seasick) and an even greater party afterwards. Very happy team!!!
See you,
Mel

PaulNewsome · **Posted:** Wed Feb 20, 2008 4:13 am

Andrew Hunt wrote:

Hi Paul, my duo team “the numbats” finished in 7h05 which we were pretty happy with. Although it wasn’t a mill pond out there, the conditions were infinitely better than any of Friday night’s predictions.

It was a spectacular event to be a part of. While swimming I felt as if I was flying through the water at high speed. Back in the boat it was like being part of fleet of 1000 becalmed boats drifting slowly towards Rottnest.

Every one in our team (paddlers, skipper, crew and swimmers) had a terrific day.

Andrew

PaulNewsome · **Posted:** Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:10 pm

Andrew Page wrote:

Hi Paul

Firstly, well done to Mark Scanlon, that is an amazing effort.

My result was 6h 2m and found it to be the 2nd hardest crossing out my my
now 6 total. Wanted to try and get under 6 hours so it was cruel to be so
close but I knew it was going to be a slower day. I thought that 6 hours
was achievable but that was from the shoreline and I wasn't too far wrong
really. That time gave me an overall position of 27th and 21st male.

I found the conditions to be not too bad and I have swum in worse but it
was still hard work. I found the chop and swell wasn't that big but the
intervals were quite short. It was a challenge to try and keep the rhythm
going and that it required a lot of concentration.

Out of the crossings I have done that would be the one where I had the
least left over at the end. I put in a very solid effort up to the 11km
point and then consolidated for another 5 to avoid burning out and finished
the final 4km very strongly except for the last 400m where I felt quite
knackered.

A good day though and I look forward to my next crossing!!

rgds

Andrew

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2008 Rottnest Bankwest Channel Swim

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