Swimmer goes missing during Midmar Mile race

Urgh another one. People dont always realise swimming these things is harder than they think.
Look back at any triathlon and see where the majority of fatalities happen, swim is always tops.
 
Rocket-Boy said:
Urgh another one. People dont always realise swimming these things is harder than they think.
Look back at any triathlon and see where the majority of fatalities happen, swim is always tops.
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I recall the ironman a year or 2 ago also had 2 fatalities. During the swim. What people don't know is swimming is just as strenuous as running. The only difference is that it is better for your joints.
 
creeper said:
I recall the ironman a year or 2 ago also had 2 fatalities. During the swim. What people don't know is swimming is just as strenuous as running. The only difference is that it is better for your joints.
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Arms flailing and legs kicking in sardine style proximity. And people are surprised when someone gets knocked out. And sinks.
 
It's unfortunate because for many years the Midmar Mile was fatality free. The three fatalities were all in the last few years
 
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I always thought they had boats and stuff around on the route?
 
That dam turns into something that resembles the ocean when they chuck all that people in. They should spread it over more days and have less people swim at the same time.
 
Mila said:
That dam turns into something that resembles the ocean when they chuck all that people in. They should spread it over more days and have less people swim at the same time.
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Yep or do more seed releases for each race ie: more groups than the current , especially the white. Break down white into multiple groups.
 
They had extra precautions this year:
Swimmers got a free orange floater to tie around their waists.
More safety canoes
500 swimmers instead of 600 swimmers per race.
 
They need divers with those one man submarine thingy following them.
 
Kosmik said:
If you've swum it or been there, I think video footage would be useless. It's chaos in there.
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i used to do it regularly when i lived in kzn (& was a little younger)
chaos - does not describe it, but the chaos was part of the attraction
 
SEARCH CONTINUES FOR MISSING SWIMMER

The search for swimmer Tristan Dennis, who went missing during the Midmar Mile at the weekend, resumed on Monday, event organisers said.

The 30-year-old swimmer from Durban went missing on Saturday, the organisers said in a statement.

He was swimming in the company relay race and entered the water at 11.22am. There was no record of him exiting the water at any point along the race.

The race organisers were notified by concerned friends, who were swimming with him, after they waited for more than an hour for him to emerge from the water.


Source : Sapa /mr/cls/ks
Date : 09 Feb 2015 11:25
 
The event is absolute chaos. My kid was supposed to go this year, but the school pulled the event as they felt security was not good enough. This year they spread the seeding apart, but just look at last year's and you will get an understanding than no amount of safety on the water would prevent this. In the last 3 incidents it was said that all swimmers were fit and good swimmers. I would be worried to swim in a crowd like this.

[video=youtube;nSZUV7RoP5U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSZUV7RoP5U[/video]
 
Somewhere in that video is the last picture of the poor swimmer who drowned last year.

It certainly looks dangerous.
 
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