Bog Snorkellers Breathing Easy

Illawarra Mercury

Wednesday August 28, 2002

Jodi Allen

AFTER waiting with bated breath for the 2002 World Bog Snorkelling Championship, Short Orders was disappointed to discover it had nothing to do with porcelain bathroom fixtures.

Turns out that rather than negotiating S-bends (a la Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting), bog snorkelling involves grovelling one's way along a 60m long, 1.2m deep, water-filled ditch in the middle of nowhere.

No doubt to deter the involvement of chlorine-coddled nancy boys like Ian Thorpe, international bog snorkelling rules ban the use of conventional swimming strokes.

Instead, competitors must rely solely on their flippers and breathing pipe. So it was that 90 starters from USA, Russia, Australia, Ireland and, of course, the birthplace of bog snorkelling, Britain, converged on a peat marsh outside Llanwrtyd Wells, in Wales, on Monday.

Cheered on by a knowledgeable crowd of fans, home town hope Philip John floundered his way to the 17th World Championship, traversing the trench in 1.45minutes.

Eat your heart out, Thorpey.

© 2002 Illawarra Mercury

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