Swimmers from around the world descended on Lake Bled, Slovenia, on January 21 for this year’s Winter Swimming Championships - not in a warm, indoor swimming pool, but in a beautiful glacial lake, surrounded by snow-covered mountains reflecting magnificently in its steely grey surface, writes Margy Sullivan.

The water in the eight-lane, 25m pool, which was made from floating pontoons, was a toe-curling 2- 3C, while the air temperature stayed well below freezing.

The fresh crispy snow turned to slippery ice underfoot as the weekend progressed.

It was too early in the season for the lake to freeze over, apparently.

To warm competitors up after their races, the Finns had donated a wood-burning sauna.

The championships consists of four individual events: head-up breaststroke, invented by the Finns for swimming in icy water, 25m and 50m freestyle and a 500m endurance swim across the lake.

There were also two relay events, in breaststroke and freestyle.

Age groups ranged from U20 to over-70s and there were about 700 competitors, including a large contingent from South London Swimming Club.

To open the proceedings the Mayor of Bled welcomed the swimmers then dropped his feathered hat, regalia and red robes to reveal nothing but swimming trunks and plunged into the ice cold lake.

Despite the recent cold weather in the UK, we Brits found it cold. “I’m so nervous” said Mandy Worsley from the SLSC. “I can’t think why, I swam in water colder than this only last week!”

“This is not cold,” beamed a Russian woman from Siberia, “where I come from it is minus-36C and the ice is thick!”

The Finns dominated the 25m breaststroke races on Friday, but then again, they outnumbered the rest of the world two to one.

The Brits proudly brought home one gold, one silver and three bronze medals.

“This is wonderful” said our new world champion Ann Brimelow, from SLSC. “I don’t feel in the least bit cold; those Finnish women really know how to get the heat going in the sauna.”

The freestyle races on Saturday gave the other nations a chance as Finns don’t do front crawl.

The Russians and Latvians proved tough opponents and the competition was fierce.

The turn for the 50m proved an interesting conundrum.

There was nothing to push off from under water so tumble turns were out of the question.

We all had our theories on best way to turn, but I know I only managed a stalled start on the second leg of the swim.

For the finalists who had entered both 25m and 50m races, it meant four swims in the icy water in less than three hours.

“I don’t think I can go in again so soon,” moaned SLSC’s Nicola Malin of her final swim of the day. “It’s less than half-an-hour between swims. I don’t think I’ve even begun to defrost.”

The Brits clocked up the medals, finishing third behind Finland and the Russians on the overal tally.

“Its been the most fantastic fun” said Lucy Petrie from SLSC. “I’m so proud to have won gold.”

The only representative from Hawaii USA, Chio Hatakeyama, took gold in all her races.

Would she be back next year?

“I think that might be too soon to thaw out properly,” she answered. “I might stick to warm pools for a while.”

Next up were the endurance swimmers.

All morning, there had been activity out on the lake preparing the 500m course.

A row of large square floats every 50m or so marked the route across the lake.

The 28 swimmers taking part walked round to the other side of the lake to the start.

The finish was sensibly on the jetty next to the sauna.

A motor boat zipped across the lake, ferrying towels, blankets and warm clothes.

We watched with empathy, feeling every burning stroke, as they swam across the lake, rowing boats keeping a watchful eye.

Veteran of cold-water swimming, Andrew Allum from High Wycombe, was first to finish in eight minutes, six seconds.

The second Brit in was SLSC’s Mike Vessey, from Clapham, in 11:25.

“Within a couple of minutes, my hands and feet went completely numb,” he said later.

“The water felt really heavy, and everything hurt.

“I can hardly believe I really did it. I feel fantastic”

That night’s celebrations resulted in a slow start for the British swimmers in the relay races on Sunday morning.

Luckily, all made it poolside in time for their races.

It seemed the temperature had dropped yet again.

It was going to be tough. The SLSC teams were up against Finland’s best from Oulu and Tampere, and some pretty serious Russians, Latvians and Estonians. The Brits swam their hearts out for the final races of the weekend and managed second and third in the freestyle 200+ age group.

(All British medallists from SLSC, except Mary Gould from Somerset)

Gold medallists: Ann Brimelow, 60-plus breaststroke; Lucy Petrie, 40-plus 25m freestyle; Mandy Worsley, 45-plus 25m freestyle; Ellery McGowan, 60-plus 25m freestyle, 50m freestyle; Rob Hughes, 60-plus 50m freestyle; Margy Sullivan, 50-plus 50m freestyle.

Silver: Mary Gould, 20-plus breaststroke; Nicola Malin, 40-plus 25m freestyle; Margy Sullivan, 50-plus 25m freestyle; Patricia Baker, 65-plus 25m freestyle; Mandy Worsley, 45-plus 50m freestyle; Rory Fitzgerald, 50-plus 50m freestyle; Nicola Malin, Mandy Worsley, Rob Hughes, Jim Boucher relay.

Bronze: Lucy Neal, 50-plus breaststroke; Mandy Worsley, 45-plus breaststroke; Nicola Malin, 40-plus breaststroke; Joseph Lennon, U20 25m freestyle, U20 50m freestyle; Nicola Malin, 40-plus 50m freestyle; Andrew Ingamells, Deb Wright, Lucy Petrie, Ellery McGowan relay.

Overall table (Gold, silver, bronze): Finland 24 19 22; Russia 20 20 18; GB 7 7 7; Latvia 5 3 6; Estonia 5 3 0; Germany 2 3 0; Slovenia 0 1 3; USA 3 0 0; Poland 0 3 0; Ukraine 0 2 0; Norway 0 0 2; Holland 0 1 0.