ACROSS THE LAKE
Conny Stamhuis, this year’s oldest participant, smiles as she emerges from Okanagan Lake at City Park during Saturday morning’s 70th annual Interior Savings Across the Lake Swim.
More than 1,300 people swam 2.1 kilometres across Okanagan Lake from the ferry docks on the Westside to Hot Sands beach in Kelowna’s City Park Saturday morning as part of the Interior Savings Across the Lake Swim.
This was the 70th year for the event, which began in 1949 as part of the Kelowna Regatta.
This year’s event included recognition for swimmers, with over 40 swimmers wearing silver caps who had registered for 10 or more years and five swimmers who had done the swim 20 or more years wearing gold caps.
Justice Migneault, a teenager from Maple Ridge, was the first across the lake beating Bo Simpson in a foot race to the finish line by two seconds this year in a time of 23:04.
This was Migneault’s third time swimming across the lake. Last year he finished fourth.
“It feels great to be first,” he said, noting the swim was a little hard for the first, but after he warmed up it started to feel good.
Migneault, who trains with the Surrey Knights Swim Club, will be heading to Winnipeg July 25 to compete in the Canadian Junior Championships.
Roland Bauhart holds the record for the fastest time of 20:49, set in 1997.
Conditions for the 70th Across the Lake looked better than expected Saturday morning after a wind warning issued the day before.
“The water is only slightly broken,” Mark Fromberg, an event organizer, said before the start. “There’s no real strong wind or wave, so I think all the conditions are pretty good.”
The event raises money to send every Grade 3 student from Peachland to Lake Country for free swimming lessons to teach then lifesaving water safety skills.
New this year was the Shoreline Splash, a free event for kids five to 12, that saw kids swim about 25 metres in a roped off area along the shore in City Park. Each participant got a timing chip and crossed under the giant arch to finish. “It’s just fun,” said Fromberg. The event gets kids exposed to the idea of the fun of swimming in open water.
“We want to give every kid a really positive experience with water,” he said.
Starting at 8 a.m. just like the main event, the shoreline splash provides a distraction for the spectators lining the shoreline during the 20 or so minutes it takes swimmers crossing the lake to near the finish line.