BRRR! Swimmers heading to Poland for the International Ice Swimming Championships later this month have been practising their strokes at Buckfastleigh Open Air Swimming Pool.<

The swimmers from across Devon and Cornwall will be representing Great Britain in races ranging from 100 metres to 1,000 metres, in an ‘ice pool’ cut out of a frozen lake in Katowice.<

The competition is under international ice swimming rules, which means the swimmers compete wearing just normal swimming costumes and no wetsuits are allowed.<

Pam Barrett, Buckfastleigh’s deputy mayor and chairman of Victoria Park Trustees, said the Buckfastleigh pool at the park is a balmy eight degrees centigrade at the moment.

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