Eighteen thousand five hundred swimmers took the plunge yesterday to swim across Nantou County’s Sun Moon Lake during the 26th annual 3.3 km swim.
The swimmers, who included 246 foreign participants from the US, England, Japan, Holland, Australia, China, Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as 297 with physical disabilities, began swimming in groups starting at 7am, with the last swimmer entering the water at about 10:30am, forming a long line across the lake.
The swim, from the Chaowu pier (朝霧) to the Ita Thao Pier (伊達邵), would take a good swimmer between 40 minutes to an hour to complete, the Nantou County Government said, adding that most can reach the other side within two hours.
“The event is a fun gathering for swim clubs from around the country. People display the banners of their swim clubs … it is fun to watch and to be in,” a 52-year-old swimmer surnamed Huang (黃) told the Taipei Times, adding that this was his third year.
In view of the death of two swimmers in last year’s event, the county government this year had taken extra precautions to prevent mishaps, it said, including an underwater GPS system as well as color coding the caps of participants based on fitness levels.
The race was also moved up from September to August so that the water temperature would be more agreeable for swimmers, the county government said.
The GPS system was placed on 20 professional divers who lined up along the first 100m stretch of the swim, since “any unexpected physical problems experienced by swimmers usually occur during the first 100m,” a county government official said.
In addition, participants with physical disabilities, or those over the age of 65, wore pink swimming caps rather than red ones so that lifeguards could keep an eye out for them, he said.
The last swimmer made it onto the shore just before 2pm.
After the race, Nantou County Commissioner Lee Chao-ching (李朝卿) thanked the 36 handicapped swimmers from the Three-legged Cat Swimming Club of the Taichung Welfare Promotion Association for the Disabled (台中市殘障福利協進會) for participating.
Within that group, Huang Chung-hao (黃仲浩), had been the fastest disabled swimmer in the two previous years.
Despite placing second this year, he maintained his time of 40 minutes.
Aside from a woman who hyperventilated and a man who was hurt in the right eye, no major injuries were reported, although five people were sent to hospital after complaining of discomfort, the county government said.
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