Ice foils London X'mas swim for first time in 30 years
LONDON: One of London's oldest -- as well as coldest -- Christmas Day traditions fell plant to a freezing continue upon Saturday when ice forced swimmers to abandon their open-air competition in a lake.
About 40 audacious souls had hoped to take part in a 100-metre float in a Serpentine lake in London's Hyde Park, though a ice forced organisers to terminate a eventuality for a initial time in scarcely thirty years.
However, dozens of swimmers, a little wearing Santa hats as well as surfing shorts, still braved a chilly H2O for an spontaneous plunge in a tiny area where they had crushed a ice.
"We couldn't hold a normal race, though you managed to break a channel in a ice to have a quick dip," said Brian Thomas, titular cabinet member of a Serpentine Swimming Club.
"The last time it was solidified over upon Christmas sunrise was 1981, so it's quite a singular event."
Swimmers shunned wetsuits, opting to wear normal showering costumes. December is expected to be Britain's coldest given records began in 1910.
A Scottish piper wearing a frock provided dignified await from a side of a lake, whilst a little swimmers sipped from prohibited mugs of tea perched upon a ice as they paddled in a water.
The competition was initial hold in 1864 as well as a Peter Pan crater was initial awarded in 1904 by J.M. Barrie, a Scottish novelist as well as creator of a boy who refuses to grow up.
About 40 audacious souls had hoped to take part in a 100-metre float in a Serpentine lake in London's Hyde Park, though a ice forced organisers to terminate a eventuality for a initial time in scarcely thirty years.
However, dozens of swimmers, a little wearing Santa hats as well as surfing shorts, still braved a chilly H2O for an spontaneous plunge in a tiny area where they had crushed a ice.
"We couldn't hold a normal race, though you managed to break a channel in a ice to have a quick dip," said Brian Thomas, titular cabinet member of a Serpentine Swimming Club.
"The last time it was solidified over upon Christmas sunrise was 1981, so it's quite a singular event."
Swimmers shunned wetsuits, opting to wear normal showering costumes. December is expected to be Britain's coldest given records began in 1910.
A Scottish piper wearing a frock provided dignified await from a side of a lake, whilst a little swimmers sipped from prohibited mugs of tea perched upon a ice as they paddled in a water.
The competition was initial hold in 1864 as well as a Peter Pan crater was initial awarded in 1904 by J.M. Barrie, a Scottish novelist as well as creator of a boy who refuses to grow up.
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