Teenage girls take top spots at Skaha Lake Ultra Swim
Girl Power ruled the day in the 20th running of the Skaha Lake Ultra Swim on Sunday.
The top-two finishers at the 11.8-km open water swim — from Skaha Lake Beach in Penticton to Kenyon Beach in Okanagan Falls — were 16-year-old Chantel Jeffrey of Salmon Arm and 17-year-old Haley Berrisford of Summerland.
“It’s pretty cool . . . I definitely didn’t expect to win,” said Jeffrey, who clocked a winning time of 2 hours, 35 minutes and 3 seconds. “Coming in, I thought I could go 2:35 or 2:40, but I figured there would be five or more guys (finishing) well before me.”
The Ultra Swim was resurrected after a 13-year absence and attracted the biggest field in its history with 83 athletes starting the race and 82 finishing.
A large number of spectators gathered on the beach as the athletes splashed their way across the finish line.
Berrisford, a 17-year-old member of the KISU Swim Club who is going into Grade 12 at Pen-Hi this fall, churned to the finish line in a time of 2:50:55.
“I was hoping to come in under three hours but it always hinges on conditions,” said Berrisford, who also finished second at the Rattlesnake Island 7K swim at Peachland last weekend. “It was great out there with a nice tailwind. I had a really good race and I was really happy to come in second.”
The top male finisher was 39-year-old Sean Orb of Kelowna, who clocked a 2:57:16 to place third overall.
Willed to the finish line by legendary race announcer Steve King for a sub-three-hour clocking was Penticton’s Julia Heidt, who came fourth overall and first in the women’s 20-29 age group at 2:59:59.
Former Ultra520K champ Dave Matheson of Penticton rounded out the top five at 3:02:10.
A pair of Ultra Swim greats of yesteryear showed they still have what it takes.
K.C. Emerson of Vancouver, now 56, came sixth overall at 3:03:18, while Dave Kirk of Kelowna placed seventh overall in 3:09:33.
Emerson made it an incredible four agegroup records at the Ultra Swim, shattering the previous women’s 50-59 mark by an hour and 16 minutes. She already owned the 20-29, 30-39 and 40-49 records as well as the women’s overall course record of 2:30:04 set in 1991.
Emerson also won the women’s overall title five times (1989 to 1991, 1993 and 2003).
Kirk won the first two Ultra Swims in 1985 and 1986. His winning time in 1986 was 2:44:54.
But youth was served in this year’s Ultra Swim, which returned for the first time since 2004 and was designated as an official Peach Festival event.
Jeffrey clocked the fourth fastest time ever by a female and broke the women’s 14-19 record of 2:36:40 set by Penticton’s Andrea Dobrik in 1989.
“It was choppy at the beginning but once you got past Ponderosa Point, you got a good push with the waves,” said Jeffrey, who recently represented Swim Canada at the open water swimming championships in the Cayman Islands.
A member of the Columbia-Shuswap-Selkirk Swim Club, Jeffrey just returned from the national championships in Montreal and Toronto, where she won the open water race and finished second in the 800 metre (pool) race.
“I’m still kind of recovering from that, so I probably didn’t have my strongest race,” said Jeffrey, who usually swims 10 km per day in training during the peak season. “I wanted to do something long-distance — the longest I ever raced before is six kilometres.”
Berrisford has been taking part in triathlons since she was just five years old. The sport is in her blood — parents Mike and Melissa are long-time triathletes who operate the Tri-Power Triathlon Club in Penticton and Summerland.
“I actually swam (Skaha Lake) in training, so I’ve done that kind of distance before and kind of knew a little of what to expect,” said Berrisford. “Doing the Rattlesnake race last weekend was a nice test leading up to this one.”
Orb, a long-time triathlete, said he never expected to be anywhere close to the top of the leaderboard, let alone top male.
“I’m pretty humbled right now,” said Orb. “I just wanted to be able to finish.”
Orb said he was an avid swimmer growing up, but always in much shorter distances. He also tuned up by competing at the Rattlesnake event, which was — for one week anyway — his longest race.
“Even in training, the maximum I’d ever done was around 6K,” said Orb. “The great conditions and the tailwind out there today certainly helped.”
Local favourite and Canadian masters sensation Karl Donoghue of Okanagan Falls clocked a 3:44:28 to obliterate the previous men’s 70-99 record of 5:10:38 set in 2004.