The development of the Swimrun format continues to grow, with the addition of a National Championships event from Breca Swimrun (www.brecaswimrun.com).
If you need a “quick look” guide, we had a go last year in the Lake District. You can find out about why it is becoming the next go to challenge sport HERE and why we’ll be back to try it again after it taught us a lesson in terrain respect!
Breca, the organiser of many global swimrun events around the globe, has launched the Breca National Championships in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The annual competitions will see teams compete for the National Champion title and a points-based National Ranking.
The Breca National Championship will be the prestigious race of the season, where the winning team in the Men’s, Women’s and Mixed categories will be crowned the Full or Sprint distance National Champions. The race venue for the National Championship will change every year, with the 2019 locations to be announced shortly.
The Breca National Ranking is a points-based ranking system for teams competing across the Breca series each year. Teams will be awarded points for each race they complete, with extra points available at the Breca National Championship race. Following the final race of the calendar year, points will be aggregated to rank the Men’s, Women’s and Mixed teams over the Full and Sprint distances.
“The Breca National Championships and Breca Rankings will allow endurance elites and multisport enthusiasts to compete alongside each other across our stunning race locations,” said Breca founder, Ben de Rivaz. “Swimrun is rapidly becoming the ‘A’ sport for many of our athletes, it’s going to be a thrilling competitive arena.”
Swimrun involves teams of two traversing trail and open water, running in their wetsuits and swimming in their shoes. It is one of the fastest-growing sports globally, with Breca the first to establish races in the U.K. and New Zealand, and the only swimrun series across two continents. Having started with just 14 teams at its inaugural swimrun event in the Lake District (U.K.) in 2015, 2018 saw 630 teams competing at Breca events globally.
The name Breca is derived from the most dramatic swimming contest in literature: the seven-day race between Breca and Beowulf across a stormy windswept sea. Breca emerges from the water victorious; but Beowulf claims the greater victory as he stopped to fight sea monsters along the way.
While the sea monsters are thankfully lacking from their races, the events are nevertheless a true test of strength against the open water and the trail. The Breca team have 30 years combined endurance experience, in events ranging from 50 to 100-mile ultramarathons to the Mongol Derby, Ironman, Norseman Xtreme Triathlon, ÖTILLÖ and the Transylvanian Bear Race. We understand what makes a great event.
“Swimrun is all about teammates working together to complete a unique endurance challenge in spectacular surroundings,” said de Rivaz. “You learn a lot about yourself and your own physical and mental capabilities, as well as connecting with nature in a truly immersive way – it’s you and your partner working with and, sometimes, against the elements across land and water.”
Breca offers two distances to race over: Full-distance courses covering 37-54km with projected finish times of 6-10 hours, and 18-22km Sprint courses that take 2.5-4.5 hours to complete. A team entry (two people) costs from £225 for a Sprint and £330 for a Full. Teams who enter three races of the same distance across the season will receive a 30% discount to their third event.
For more information on the Breca National Championships, Rankings and details of our races visit the Breca Swimrun website HERE.