Taking the plunge
Friday 2 September 2011, 03:28AM
A new record time has been set in one of the UK’s most unusual sporting events – the annual World Bog Snorkelling Championships in the Welsh county of Powys.
If you don’t know what bog snorkelling is, take a wild guess – it involves a bog, a snorkel and a rather smelly plunge into some icy cold water.
Andrew Holmes, from Halifax, West Yorkshire, took less than 90 seconds to complete two lengths of a 55 metre trench. He smashed the previous record, set last year by Brecon’s Dan Morgan, by more than six seconds.
More than 100 people took part in this year’s event at Llanwrtyd Wells.
Contestants use flippers but must avoid conventional swimming strokes when negotiating the water-filled trenches.
The championships were started 25 years ago after a group of local people got together in a pub brainstorming session to find new ways of raising funds for charity.
