Shrewsbury river swim makes an even bigger splash - with video

The Shrewsbury Masters open water swim saw dozens of people make the 700m trip from the Welsh Bridge down to Pengwern Boat Club.

The really brave travelled 1,100m to the Kingsland Bridge and then turned and travelled back 400m to Pergwern.

Les Church won the men's 1,500 in a wetsuit, with Andy Williams winning in the non-wetsuit category.

Caroline Saxon took the top place in Sunday's women's competition, despite her not using a wetsuit, with Sarah Griffiths, with wetsuit, coming second.

In the 700m race, David Grey came in first place for the men and Laura Bentley won for the women.

Shrewsbury Masters chairman Bernard Wills said it had been a very successful day – despite the water only being about 16C (60F).

"There was a really good turnout," he said. "We had 92 people swim.

"It was started in 2007 and about 10 to 15 took part. We've obviously advertised it and each year we get more people.

"Out of the 92 that went into the water, only one person got out because they got into difficulties."

Open water swimming is getting more popular, Bernard said.

"It's a challenge of swimming in something that you wouldn't normally swim," he added. "It's colder, it's different.

"It's not for everyone but we always get first timers who say 'that was great' and come back the next year.

"It's not so much the difficulty. You need to have the confidence to swim in the river, and the ability to swim properly. A lot of the issues surrounding it is being frightened of swimming in the river where you can't see the bottom."

It's also a chance for people who want to swim in the river to do so safely.

"Everybody is counted in and counted out," Bernard said. "Everybody is viewed from the side to make sure it's the safest possible swim.

"We always hear about people getting into difficulties while swimming in the river. This event is an annual chance for them to do it when it's controlled and safe, and we get people from all over the Midlands come up and do it."