‘Bog queen’ Elinor is a champion
NOT many people are crowned world champion for something they only signed up to “for a laugh”.
But after beating fellow competitors from all over the world, Elinor MacCormac can call herself just that.
On Sunday, Elinor, 29, from Heath, Cardiff, was crowned “Queen of the Bog” at the 2018 World Bog Snorkelling Championships.
The annual event in Llanwrtyd Wells, Powys, was held for the 33rd time at the weekend, and saw 125 competitors plunge into a boggy trench and swim 55m and back again in the fastest time possible.
No-one was more surprised at Elinor’s win than herself.
“I have no idea why I won it,” she said afterwards. “I entered me and my boyfriend for his Christmas present last year because I’m rubbish at presents and couldn’t think of anything else. He can barely float, let alone swim.”
The trainee clinical psychologist does, however, have some swimming background.
In her younger days, she swam competitively and is a member of Cardiff Triathletes. She reckons it is her open water sea swimming that gave her the edge on the day.
“I swim a lot normally so didn’t really train for it but swimming in Barry Island got me used to swimming through the murky waters and freezing cold.”
“I have quite a decent leg kick, so it might have just been having a strong leg kick that got me through.
“Or maybe it was because I was stupid enough to do it without a wetsuit that meant I was desperate to get out as soon as possible to warm up.”
Her poor boyfriend, Andy Paramore, had only snorkelled once in his life around five years ago, so it was a slightly more challenging experience for him.
Rules say that competitors cannot use traditional swimming strokes and must wear snorkels and flippers.
“I thought doggy paddle wasn’t the most efficient technique so I just held my arms out in front and kicked like hell instead,” Elinor explained.
“It was about 110 metres so I didn’t pace it, just tried to sprint the whole time.”
Her technique seemed to pay off, as she finished in 1:48.6 minutes, the quickest woman of the day and exactly 60 seconds ahead of Andy.
“It was absolutely freezing. That was the hardest bit I thought,” she said.
Her lack of wetsuit was only due to her commitment to her King Tritan costume.
“We heard people wore fancy dress and so my boyfriend and I decided to go for a topical theme and he dressed as the Little Mermaid and I dressed as King Tritan.”
The couple just missed out on the prize for the best fancy-dress costume, which was handed to the “bog-ness monster”.
But even a world champion has to return to work, however, and Elinor has found her new title has an unfortunate consequence among her colleagues.
“I was on Sky Sports News yesterday and they called me the “bog queen”, so unfortunately I think that one is sticking.”
“I definitely wasn’t expecting to win, but am finding it hilarious that I’m a world champion.”