Representatives of the Vitebsk region became the triumphant winners of the open championship of Belarus in winter swimming

The open championship of Belarus in winter swimming was held at the capital's Komsomolskoye Lake. In addition to athletes from our country, participants from Kazakhstan, Russia, and Estonia took part: a total of over 100 people aged 12 to 77. Representatives of the Vitebsk region performed above all praise.

The patriarch of winter swimming from the regional center, Stanislav Shumykov, won the freestyle in the age category over 50 years old on the 200-meter track with icy water (the temperature was 1.5°C). His younger colleague, Polotsk coach Igor Kopytenko, became the overall winner of the tournament. He won at distances of 25, 50, 100, and 200 m freestyle and 50 m breaststroke, and also took second place twice. Only the smaller number of participants than in Minsk prevented us from taking first place in the team competition, but "silver" is also a remarkable result. In addition, Stanislav and Igor became the best in their categories in the overall standings based on the year's results. The next starts are at the end of January. The open Cup of Belarus is expected to be attended by swimmers from 10 countries.

Ales Bynkov. Photos by Dmitry Osipov, from the archive of "Vitebskiye Vesti".