Team-mates take top three places at club to pub swim

MORE than 500 people took part in the annual Henley Club to Pub Swim on Saturday.

The participants had to swim 1.5km from Henley Rowing Club to the Angel on the Bridge in Thames Side.

Swimming in waves, they began by heading upstream towards Marsh Lock and around Rod Eyot before coming back downstream to the pub.

Spectators gathered to watch the action from Henley Bridge and Singers Park.

At the finish the swimmers were given a bottle of Brakspear’s Angel’s Delight beer and a finisher’s medal which doubled as a bottle opener by Mayor Rory Hunt before drying off and enjoying barbecue food.

The event, which is organised by Henley Swim, was won by Shawn Morgan, 58, a civil servant from Reading, who finished in a time of 19 minutes and 58 seconds.

Mr Morgan, who is a member of Reading Masters Swimming Club, was followed by club colleagues Joel Winter with a time of 20 minutes and 11 seconds and David Stannard who finished just seven seconds further behind.

The fastest woman for the second year running was 19-year-old Amelie Bissett with a time of 22 minutes and two seconds.

Mr Morgan, who has competed in the event six times, said he had been spurred on by the friendly competition with his club mates.

He said: “All three of us are from Reading and we swim together, so it’s almost like a training session. It was all right — the last few hundred metre were hard.”

Mr Winter, 50, from Caversham, said: “It was tough all the way through. I led for the first 500 to 700 metres and then the other guy came through. To be fair, we’ve come first and second a number of times.”

The dentist said he was encouraged by his wife and daughter who were cheering him on from the bank.

He said: “I could see them all the way down. It was great motivation.”

Mr Stannard, 53, said the swim was his favourite event of the year.

He said: “It’s really friendly, well organised and finishes at a pub — what more could you ask for?

“I’ve done it lots of times and I really enjoyed it today.”

Mr Stannard, who is part of the senior leadership team at Henley Business School off Marlow Road, is a keen open-water swimmer. He said: “I try to swim outside once a week, maybe twice. I also swim in a pool as well.”

Miss Bissett, whose father Derek, 55, also took part, chose to swim without a wetsuit.

“It was enjoyable but cold,” she said. “I won last year, so I wanted to see if I could do it again.”

Rowan Fuller, captain of the Henley Hawks’ veterans team, also took part.

Mr Fuller, from Peppard, said: “It’s a great local event with about 500 people in the river on a Saturday night. It’s a lot of fun It was a lot slower today but I think I’m getting older and the river’s getting stronger.”

Matt Taylor, 42, from Wandsworth, was cheered on by his daughters Dulcie, eight, and Lara, five, who had made a sign to support him. He said: “I think this is my fourth or fifth time — it’s a really nice event. It goes quite quickly as well. It’s cold when you get in but you get used to it within about a minute. Then the racing kind of keeps you warm.”

Friends Amanda Read and Josie Hart, also from London, took part as they are members of Team Mermaid, an open-water swimming collective.

Ms Hart, was making her debut at the event, said: “I really loved it. I think I perhaps missed a bit in the briefing about which way to go around the first buoys, so I was suddenly quite far out into the middle and was like, ‘Where is everyone? I’m on my own’.”

Ms Read, who has done the swim before, said: “It’s always hard going upstream for that first 400 metres but once you turn, it’s quite nice.”