Marathon Swims 2018

The performances by our Marathon Swims participants never fail to amaze us. Here are just a few of the stories from the second ever Marathon Swims event (10 and 11 November 2018):

Record breaking event:

Every record time was beaten (or equalled) by the year's Marathon Swims participants, with the sole exception of the male Marathon 10k record..

Marathon 10k:

Hayley Moore not only retained her overall Marathon 10k title, smashed her own event record time by 5 minutes (completing the Marathon 10k in an amazing 2:28:53) but also came third in the Team 10k event. Hayley really is the person to beat - will anyone challenge her in Marathon Swims 2019?

The male Marathon 10k record remains with James Simmons from 2017 (2:36:54), with the 2018 top male Tom Hayward winning in 2:41:43.

Gill Cook, last year's 3rd place female went one better with a second place. This was a fantastic achievement but especially when you consider she knocked almost 20 minutes off her previous time. Last year she completed the Marathon 10k in 3:01:24, this year 2:43:45!

Half Marathon 5k:

Konstantinos Leontaridis smashed the Half Marathon 5k record by 6 minutes, winning the event in a very impressive 1:26:49. The women's Half Marathon 5k record was also smashed with Mariana Durandard coming home in 1:30:16, almost 5 minutes ahead of last year's record time.

1k Challenge:

Heather Shannon achieved the impossible - not only did she retain her women's and overall 1k Challenge title, she did so in an identical record time to last year (00:16:02). The men's 1k Challenge record saw Paris Papakonstantinon break the male record by almost a minute with a time of 00:16:43. Last year's winner and previous record holder, Jonathan Blount managed 3rd place bronze medal in time just 2 seconds out from their swim last year (00:17:38).

Sorina Catruna was second for a second successive year. Her time of 00:16:37 was 19 seconds quicker than her Marathon Swims 2017 time.

The age group world champion and legend of swimming that is Jane Asher achieved an astonishing 11th place with a time of 00:21:48. Incidentally, Jane is 87 years old! Jane was 10th last year.

Marathon 10k team:

The team event saw a dramatic battle on the Saturday between last year's winners and record holder Dan is Cool and the eventual third placed Parlaunt Pair (which included Marathon 10k champion Hayley Moore). The event was won on the Sunday by the fastest 10k swim that the event has ever seen - an amazing 2:14:58 by the aptly named Dream Team of Christopher Morgan and Peter Dixon.

The Top 50:

The Top 50 is an achievement for the best Marathon 10k swimmers. The competition was more intense this year with the time of the 50th placed Marathon swimmer at a. time of 3:23:52 compared to last year's 50th placed swimmer coming in at 3:41:30 - almost 20 minutes quicker in 2018. Where will the bar be set next year?

The Top50 is for all swimmers regardless of gender, but as luck would have it, the split of male and female members of the Top 50 is exactly 50:50

We look forward to welcoming all of our champions, record holders, participants and spectators to Marathon Swims 2019. And we are really looking forward to welcoming all new participants to the event - we hope some of you will manage to make it on to our Hall of Fame.