The ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship in the Stockholm archipelago of Sweden is the original race of the now emerging sport of swimrun. The 13th edition of the race will take place on Monday 3 September. There are 160 teams of two from across the globe who will be trail running and open water swimming for 75km across the archipelago.
ÖTILLÖ adds that it offers up ‘a gruelling, spectacular race, known as one of the toughest one-day races in the world.’ The race action will be broadcast live, on Monday 3 September from 06:00 CET on http://otilloswimrun.com/live.
Last year’s edition was the roughest edition yet, with strong winds and rain making the technical terrain even harder. The men’s category still managed to be faster than ever around the course; and, if weather conditions calm down for Monday 3 September, the race organisers note that ‘we can yet again expect some record crushing around the stunning and extremely tough course of ÖTILLÖ.’
ÖTILLÖ, meaning ‘island to island’ in Swedish, is a ‘unique race in an exceptional environment and has become one of the most respected endurance races in the world’. The race originates from a crazy idea and a bet in the bar between four friends. The course is hard and long. Technical trails, slippery rocks and cold, sometimes rough swims with a lot of current all form part of the demanding route that features 65km of running and 10km of swimming, over and between 24 islands.
At the premier race in 2006 the race winners finished after 12 hours. Only one more team of the nine starting teams made it to the finish line. Since then, ‘performance, experience and speed has stepped up the game.’
13th edition of ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship 2018
- 75km running and swimming from dawn till dusk in the Stockholm archipelago
- 65km of trail running
- 10km of open water swimming in the Baltic Sea
- Water temperature 10-15°C
- 24 islands to cross
- 50 changes between running and swimming
- The swims are between 100m and 1780m long
- The runs are between 70m and 19700m long
- Longest swim 1780m
- Longest run 19.7km
- 160 teams – three categories: men, mixed, women
- Teams of two; for safety reasons and ‘for the unique experience’
25 nationalities - Course record: 7h 58min 06 sec (2017): Daniel Hansson and Jesper Svensson, Swedish Armed Forces (SWE)
- Ranked by CNN as one of the toughest endurance challenges in the world; and featured in NYT, Outside Magazine, l’Equipe Magazine, TF1, Focus, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Le Monde, The Daily Telegraph and many more.
Winners 2017:
Men: Daniel Hansson and Jesper Svensson (SWE), Team Swedish Armed Forces, 7:58:06
Mixed: Eva Nyström (SWE) and Adriel Young (AUS), Thule Crew/Trispot.se 9:01:31
Women: Kristin Larsson and Annika Ericsson (SWE), Team Addnature/Campz, 10:03:32
ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Series 2018 – six qualifying races to ÖTILLÖ:
- ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Hvar, Croatia, 8 April 2018
- ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Utö, Sweden, 20 May 2018
- ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Isles of Scilly, UK, 10 June 2018
- ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Engadin, Switzerland, 8 July 2018
- ÖTILLÖ Swimrun 1000 Lakes, Germany, 30 September 2018 (qualifier to ÖTILLÖ 2019)
- ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Cannes; France – 21 October 2018 (qualifier to ÖTILLÖ 2019), first edition
At each ÖTILLÖ World Series event a sprint race is organised the previous day.
