Hucknall woman stars in Rutland Swim open water event with top ten finish

A woman from Hucknall finished 9th in the Rutland Swim event last weekend.

Sarah Richards completed the 8km open water swim in 2 hours and 19 minutes and was the second lady to cross the finish line in a field of around 400 swimmers.

Mrs Richards, who is a Masters swimmer for Hucknall and Linby Dolphins, got into open water swimming through competing in triathlons. Having been a club swimmer as a child, she found her swimming times especially competitive in triathlons and so moved onto competing in open water competitions.

Asked about whether she expected to do so well, Mrs Richards said: "I did look at the results from previous years and because I know I'm a relatively strong swimmer I had an idea that if I swam well, hopefully I'd be near the top end."

There was doubt about Mrs Richards' participation in the event in the weeks leading up to it, as her husband was taken into hospital but in the end, she decided to compete and swim it for her family.

On her achievement, Mrs Richards said: "I was made up really. Sometimes with open water swimming you can't always tell where you're at because there were lots of other distances going on at the same time. I've never really done a race like that before, not as big. If you know what you're doing its quite tactical, like the girl who won, she kind of went out with the men and was able to hang on their feet a bit. I just swam, I just got in and worked hard. To have got second was brilliant. It's nice to place.

"It had been a tough week, my husband's not very well, I nearly didn't do it. I think I swam it for them really."