The Irish Long Distance Swimming Association (ILDSA) will once again host their National Championship Swims in Lough Erne this Saturday and there is also a strong local angle to the event with the first ever Ted Keenan Mile to take place on the day.
Enniskillen man Keenan was a renowned channel swimmer and completed the Triple Crown of Channel swims; the English Channel, the North Channel and the Bristol Channel.
This mile swim will now become an annual event and Ted’s son, Brian, says the family were delighted to have it named after their late father.
“I was contacted by Stephen Millar who is the Chairperson of the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association, he had inaugurated Daddy into the Swimming Hall of Fame in Dublin and he wanted to name a mile swim in Lough Erne after him.
“My brother Tony, my sister Chanele and myself were happy to agree and I’m looking forward to it,” explained Brian.
Indeed, Brian will be the first to do the swim when he takes part in a run of it on Friday night.
“The Mile is on Saturday but we will be handing out medals and that to the competitors so I won’t be able to do it then. However, I’m going to do it on the Friday evening with some of the organisers and the ILDSA committee. They want me to lead them off and around the course. To be honest, the last time I was in the lough was with Daddy but I got back into it last week and swam for 25 minutes or so,” he added.
Brian was in the boat alongside Ted for each of his three successful channel swims with Ted remaining one of only two men to ever complete the three swims, along with Englishman Kevin Murphy.
“I remember them well. The first he did was the English Channel in 1972 and that was probably the easiest of the three. Then he did the North Channel in August 1973 and that was the toughest swim because of the extreme cold water temperatures and he got very badly stung by Portuguese Man o War jellyfish. Daddy then completed the three with the Bristol Channel in July 1975. He actually vomited eight times in the first eight hours of that one but he just kept going,” recalls Brian.
The Ted Keenan Mile is an open swim around Castle Island and will take place at 1pm.
This is only one part of a busy day of swimming in the water beside the Lakeland Forum with some of the best open water and long distance swimmers set to participate.
The events on the day will also include swims of 25km, 10km and 5km as well as relay options for 25km and 17km.
The 25km swim starts at Naan Island, with the other races starting at different points in the Lough, and all swims finish at the Lakeland Forum.