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Jon, who has won the Burnham triathlon five times but has not won the swim before, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: "It was a bit choppy out there but that was fine for me. The sea was like a warm bath - it felt hotter than the indoor swimming pool I train in." The first woman home was Burnham's Sara Hudghton who completed the event in a fast time of 27 minutes. She told Burnham-On-Sea.com: "It would have been fun to keep the 'woman beating the men' theme going after the last two years, but it was very difficult to see where you were swimming, let alone where other people were." "So I swam my own race and challenge and ended up swimming next to my old training partner Lee Portingale who came in fourth - it's unusual for me to beat him! Being my first open water swim I found it far harder than I'd imagined. It was a learning curve and hopefully I can improve next time," said Sara. The conditions did the swimmers no favours, with tricky currents, cold water and nearly nil visibility adding to the challenge.
She has taken part in the event three times and said: "I like sea swims a lot - there aren't many of them around the country, but this is a great event." The oldest competitor, 71-year-old Roger Venner from Burnham, has completed the event seven times. And his time of 51 minutes and 42 seconds was actually faster than last year's when he finished in 1 hour, 4 minutes and 2 seconds. More than 3,000 people flocked to Burnham seafront to watch and cheer on the swimmers - and also visit dozens of stalls selling crafts and charity merchandise.
Entries for next year's event will open at the start of next year and a spokeswoman said: "Swimmers should be aware that the race takes place in a tidal estuary so the challenge is not so much the distance, but the water conditions, which include tricky currents, cold water and the nearly nil visibility that the swimmers have to brave." Full first aid and rescue facilities were provided. The organisers from Sedgemoor District Council praised those who helped, including Burnham and Highbridge Town Council, King Alfred Sports Centre, the BARB Rescue Hovercraft group, Wessex Ambulance Service, Burnham-On-Sea RNLI, English Nature, Somerfield and Kwik Save.
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He
completed the 2,400-metre
sea swim race between
Burnham and Stert Island in an impressive time of 25 minutes and 53
seconds, some two minutes and ten seconds faster than 
Regular
competitor Rupa Morris of London (pictured) was delighted with her time
of 35 minutes and four seconds.
The
swim usually takes participants between 25 and 60 minutes to complete,
but the weather and state of the sea can often affect this. This year's
event was hot and sunny - prompting fast times all round.
