Op zondag 7 februari heeft Grith Sigsgaard van het Y (Amsterdam) deelgenomen aan de 3de ronde van de Grand Prix Wedstrijden in Open Water. Ze zwom de 88km van Hernandarias naar Parana in Argentinie. Een wedstrijd waar in het verleden ook Edith van Dijk aan deelnam.

Hieronder het wedstrijdverslag, geschreven door Martin (vriend van Grith)

“Some people wish they could swim over the English Channel. With the possibility to hit a Korean cargo freighter. Or to be found on shores of Iceland after drifting off. However, for Danish Grith Sigsgaard it was her dream to swim the 88 km between Hernandarias and Parana in Argentina. And her goal was to swim under 10 hours and 15 min.

This race will only accept 25 swimmers and this year they accepted 10 women and 15 men. It is a very hard race, because it is in a river with strong currents and occasionally very high waves. And that means you have to change your speed all the time. Out of the total length of 88km Grith had to swim 32 km on the other side of the boat. This because of safety reasons. She only breathes on the left side, but she had to follow the Fina rules which meant no ball or any other thing in the water to follow.

Halfway Grith started to take over some other swimmers as she moved up from a 7th to a 4th place. It was a deal with her Dutch club trainer Ben Lap to take it easy at the beginning and then “eat” the other swimmer slowly.

Grith stayed on the 4th place and it looked as though she would finish in 8 hours and 52 min. But then, 5 km before the finish, she missed the last buoy. The accompanying coach in the boat didn’t see the last buoy either, because Grith was on the wrong side of the river. The jury told them that Grith had to swim back 1500m. Against strong currents and high waves. After 35 min in these high waves she only moved back around 200m and could see her competitor and friend Noelia overtake her. The jury boat came after a while and decided she could turn around and swim to the finish. This because she fought enough on her way back and it wasn’t quite her fault the boat forgot to show her the right way. It was too late to try to beat Noelia, but she got a 5th place in a time of 9 hours and 25 min, kept her goal to swim under 10 hrs and was therefore very pleased with the final result. 4 girls and 1 man gave up during the race. Grith is already invited in 2011 for the 88 km and the 57 km.