Borås Swimrun
Jonas Colting is a pioneer of Swimrun (long before it was called Swimrun) and is the only person who has completed all 10 editions of ÖTILLÖ, the most prestigious of all Swimrun events, having won the race in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Colting launched Borås Swimrun in 2014 which serves as a qualifying race for ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship.
All photos by: Christine Beusang, Johan Valkonen and Elin Lilja
120 teams competed around the perimeter of a large lake in town and the surrounding trails. Altogether roughly 30 kilometers of running over 14 separate stages and five kilometers of swimming over 13 stages.
The third discipline of Swimrun is getting in and out of the water as fast as possible.
A rope is needed to help athletes get up the slippery rocks in some sections.
Race Director Colting working one of the swim exits on course.
Racers descending the steep stairs from Lakhallsberget, one of two parts of the race with a mandatory no run zone.
The terrain in Borås is varied and takes the racers through lots of forest and pastures.
Teammates attach a tow rope to provide an assist for the swimmer in back. It's even ok to do breaststroke if your teammate is alright with extra grunt work upfront.
Swim legs varied and here we see athletes sighting through the section dubbed "Jungle Swim".
More trails for this team.
Rarely is a photo captured of the photographers themselves working hard to bring us all these great shots but we found one.
Colting welcomes in all the tired and happy racers to the finish.
The podium in the men's category included winners Team HEAD Swimming with Nicolas Remires and Paul Krochak. The team won by 17 minutes. Despite a few significant wins this season the pair recently decided to split for the upcoming ÖTILLÖ, an interesting development as Krochak is the defending champ.
A traditional post race food and drink spread was available to racers.
Packed Swedish tobacco, a "snus", is what this tired finisher had been looking forward to all day.
