ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Returns To The British Isles
After a two year enforced break during the pandemic, ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Isles of Scilly returns to the UK this weekend.
Michael Lemmel, co-founder of ÖTILLÖ gives a frank appraisal on the last few years ‘things vary in each country and the pandemic affected different people in different ways. For swimrun, it is the event operators who have suffered. The last two years have been tricky but it has been extremely important to keep races on. However it’s not all doom and gloom, over the last two years the growth of the sport has certainly increased and people have been out enjoying the activity of swimrun’.
ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Isles of Scilly Race
Come this weekend, participants will travel to this remote archipelago and attempt three different race options, the Experience race (7.7km with 4 runs and 3 swims), the Sprint race (15.4km with 9 runs and 8 swims) and the World Series race (37.1km with 9 runs and 8 swims).
Athletes will have to contend with the full force of the Atlantic Ocean where swell, waves, wind and a tidal range can transform the easiest of swims into a near impossible task. The races are set within a breathtakingly beautiful part of the world which has human history tracing back to the Stone Age. Participants will swim to uninhabited islands through clear waters and run through lucid green and sometimes rocky trails.
Despite the challenges of the course which is synonymous of the World Series, safety is key. Michael and his co-founder Mats Skott take a simple but effective approach to safety based on 30 years of adventure sports and operating in nature ‘if we are willing to do it, then the World Series racers can do it’.
What Can Participants Expect?
An epic and life-affirming adventure. Michael concludes that ‘we share what the racers go through on the day and want people to walk away from the race saying this is the best thing I’ve done in my life’.
For more information, visit ÖTILLÖ Swimrun or the Wildlife Trust, who are custodians of this sensitive island habitat.
