24/8/2004

Forget all about the Olympics, as the dirtiest weekend in athletics will soon be greeting visitors to Britain's smallest town.

Llanwrtyd Wells in Powys - the eccentric capital of Wales - will be knee-deep in mud during the August Bank Holiday when it plays host to the 19th World Bog Snorkelling Championships.

All competitors from the UK and abroad will need is a snorkel and the ability to breathe under mud as they struggle their way through two lengths of a 60-yard trench in the fastest time possible in the Waen Rhydd peat bog.

Every August Bank Holiday Monday, on a windswept peat bog high above the Mid-Wales town, over a hundred snorkellers gather for the annual Bog Snorkelling World Championships.

The event is a time-trial, in which competitors, wearing mask, snorkel and flippers, must swim the length of a 60 yard trench, four foot-deep trench cut through a dense peat bog and back again to the start/finish line, a total distance of 120 yards in stinking bog water, without using conventional swimming strokes in the quickest time possible.

For the first competitors the water is remarkably clean, but it soon becomes muddy and visibility is reduced to zero. The brave souls taking part also face sharp reeds poking from the sides of the trench and glue-like mud on the bottom.

As well as British entrants, there are also international competitors from around the world that will be converging for this unusual sporting occasion. The event's sponsors, American ice cream company Ben and Jerry's, award special prizes for the fastest and slowest participants.

The popularity of the sport has certainly grown during the past few years and the unique event will soon be celebrating two decades of ditch diving with attempts to beat the World Record of 1 minute 35 seconds set last year by teenager Phillip John from Bridgend. The 16 year old beat off strong competition from several dozen other colourful entries including the blue man, the silver man, the green man, grass skirt man, and office dress man.

The competition is always intense from beginning to end, and the world record is often shattered. Bookmakers have even offered odds of 10 to 1 that the fastest time this year will shave at least five seconds or more from the current world record.

A regular competitor is Julia Galvin, 33, a biology teacher, from Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland. The First Lady of Bog-Snorkelling and President of the Irish Bog Snorkelling Association, she took up swimming in her 20s as a cure for the painful injuries received from two car accidents, after first finding out about the strange sport in the Guinness Book of World Records while recovering from a crippling back injury in hospital. Julia recently won the women's` prize at this year's World Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling Championships.

Bog snorkelling may not have thousands of adherents, but what supporters might lack in numbers they certainly make up for in enthusiasm and by extolling the purifying and detoxifying properties of bog minerals. "It can be an unforgiving sport. You are bitten by insects and get very dirty, smelly and wet all day," said Julia, "The best bit is having a warm bath at the end".

Llanwrtyd Wells hosts various crazy contests throughout the year. There's also the Real Ale Ramble - a kind of athletic pub crawl, the Real Ale Wobble where off-road cyclists stop at checkpoints on the course for free brew, the Red Kite Bash - an event that involves Mountain Bike Bog Leaping Point-to-Point, a bike-dismantling limbo contest, bike polo and a chainless downhill race.

The Man versus Horse Marathon, a spring rite that pits Brit against Beast had Bookmaker William Hill offering 25,000 pounds to the first human who could outlast the equine competition over 22 miles of hills, woods, and bogs.

The prize remained unclaimed until this year, when 27-year-old Huw Lobb of London beat 565 other bipeds and 47 quadrupeds at the event's 25th anniversary celebration.

Source:	Green Events
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