#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The project is being implemented with the active participation of the Norilsk Development Agency (NDA) and the Nornickel’s support.
The World Open Water Swimming Championship’s stage will be held on the Putorana plateau for the second time. 18 swimmers from Norilsk, Moscow, the Moscow region and St. Petersburg took to the start line a year ago. Two Norilsk diving club Nord Diving’s members swam 1852 meters – a whole nautical mile.
This time the swimming camp will be located on the Zhar-ptitsa base. Cold swimmers who are just starting out will go through initial training in Lama lake under the coaches’ guidance to swim their first distance, while experienced swimmers will improve their results.
The swim will bring together 38 participants including 17 Norilsk and Taimyr residents. They have to swim in the water whose surface temperature barely reaches plus 5 degrees.
The race will be held at distances of 50, 100, 1000 and 1852 meters. Swimmers will cover the first two distances in swimsuits and swimming trunks, a kilometer and a nautical mile in wetsuits. Competitions start on July 16 and will be held for a week, the first group of participants went to Lama on three boats and a hovercraft.
“This year, the water on Lama is a little warmer: it was about +5 degrees a year ago, this summer it’s about +10. A slot in any competitions’ location is provided next year for those who will take first places this year, in addition to medals and awards. The X-WATERS’ geography extends beyond Taimyr: these are Crimea, Ufa, Moscow, St. Petersburg and even Vladivostok”, said the NDA’s director Maxim Mironov.
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Text: Denis Kozhevnikov, Photo: author
