Two Queenstown swimmers have returned from the world ice swimming champs in Molveno, Italy, with three age-group medals apiece.
Anneke Veenstra, 45, competing for her home country, the Netherlands, as she is not a Kiwi citizen, won gold in the 500m freestyle, silver in 250m freestyle and bronze in the 1km freestyle.
That haul was quite unexpected, she says, particularly as temperatures were lower than she has experienced — the water has to be between 0 and 5°C.
At the New Zealand champs in Alexandra last July, she says the lowest temp was 2.1°C, but in Italy she did her 1km in 1.5°C.
A thrill for Veenstra was having support from not only her Dutch team-mates, but also NZ’s Frozen Ferns team.
Meanwhile, Frozen Fern Bethany Rogers, 34, won silver in the 100m backstroke and bronze in the 1km freestyle and 200m individual medley.
In the latter, a new discipline, she even held an age-group world record for about 10 minutes before two swimmers beat her time.
Like Veenstra, she’d not expected to medal, "so to get three in my age group was just kind of mind-blowing".
Rogers also found the temperatures lower than she was used to.
She says her last race, the 100m butterfly, was really hard as she was battling a fever and the water was down to 0.7°C.
"In that last little stretch my body completely gave up on me and I had to fight really, really hard to keep doing butterfly.
"I saw a lot of other people getting disqualified, so I’m actually proud I managed to finish."
