Great East Swim 2009 wins for Tom Allen and Britta Kamrau

26 September 2009 – Alton Water, nr Ipswich

17 year old Tom Allen of Great Britain and Britta Kamrau of Germany were the first winners of the British Gas Great East Swim. In perfect conditions the event, which is part of a nationwide four race series, attracted nearly 1,500 competitors of varying ages and abilities who took on the one mile open water distance.

In the men’s event, a superb finish which destroyed the rest of the field saw Tom Allen win comfortably in the best performance of his life in a time of 16:24, with Tom Vangeneugden grabbing the runners up position in 16:38 and Danill Serebrennikov third in 16:41.

The women’s elite field featured the Beijing Olympic gold, silver and bronze medallists in an exceptionally high quality field. But it was Britta Kamrau who took the honours in 18.08 with Olympic Champion Larisa Ilchenko second in 18.09 and world champion Keri Anne Payne third 2 seconds further back.

View full coverage of the mens elite event in the video below (6m 56s) from TZaluckiproductions which includes an interview with Tom Allen. Check for updates on when the full video is being released.

The highlight of the day was arguably the performance of journalist and adventurer Julian Crabtree, who completed every wave of every swim in series, swimming a total distance of 44 miles .The 41 year old said “ It’s been tough but I’m proud of what I have achieved and met some great people over recent weeks”

Crabtree continued, “It’s brilliant to see so many people involved in taking up open water swimming and maybe this could become the next big mass participation sport in the U.K.”

Original promo video (3m 08s flashplayer required)

Download full Elite Women’s Results

Elite Men’s Results

Download full Elite Men’s Results