Hundreds of hardy souls brave waters for Round the Sound swim

Ross Clarke, Sports Editor

Created: Oct 13, 2024 08:08 PM (Updated: Oct 13, 2024 10:47 PM)

Paul Dow, centre, was celebrating his bithday by competing in the Round The Sound swim on Sunday (photograph by Ras Mykkal)

Two athletes better known for their triathlon exploits were among the winners as 346 swimmers took to the waters of Harrington Sound to compete in the Round The Sound Swim on Sunday morning.

Olympian Tyler Smith, who competed for Bermuda in the triathlon at the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, proved fastest in the 6km swim, with teenager Jackson Langley, who is hoping to follow Smith’s sporting career path, beating out 123 rivals in the 2K swim.

This year’s event proved to be truly international with swimmers from 17 US states, Canada, England and Zimbabwe all travelling to take part, but it was the citizens and residents of Bermuda who dominated, winning four of the five races.

Smith, 26, completed his race in a time of 1hr 26min 06sec to come home more than two minutes clear of talented 15-year-old Connor Hupman, who won seven medals at the Carifta Aquatic Championships in Bahamas this year. Justin Edmunds finished third in 1:36:31 with Katie Dwyer, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, the first woman home in 1:56:14 to finish eighth overall.

Youth came to the fore in the 2km swim with Langley, 16, completing the course in 28:40 ahead of 13-year-old Isla Cooze (29:07), who finished runner-up overall and was the first female home. Jamie MacFarlane finished third in 29:54.

Olympian Tyler Smith on his way to winning the 6km Round the Sound swim (photograph by Ras Mykkal)

There was a female victory in the 4km swim with 15-year-old Katherine Wheddon, another of Bermuda’s medal-winners at Carifta this year, finishing first overall in 1:02:55. She had 15 seconds to spare at the line over 13-year-old Dominic Wright (1:03:10) with Logan Jones rounding out the podium places (1:04:09)

Some hardcore swimmers spent more than five hours in the water when completing the longest race of the day, the 10km swim, with victory going to Nina Coetzer in 2:27:35. Eileen Mullowney finished second (2:28:57) with Coetzer’s husband, Brad, finishing third (2:33:34)

The shortest race of the day, the 0.8km swim, was won by American visitor Tony Schumacher, from Fort Collins, Colorado. He stopped the clock at 13:31 ahead of Riaan Engelbrecht (14:17) and Oliver Goodwin (14:18). Kiera Dunley-Owen was the first female to finish in 15:25 and finished sixth overall.