Rottnest Channel Swim organisers have been forced to cancel the iconic Western Australian event due to dangerous weather conditions.
Thousands of swimmers taking part in the almost 20-kilometre race were told to exit the water on Saturday morning as a result of “extreme risk” weather advice.
Two 15-year-old boys and two women in their 20s were plucked out of the water earlier in the event and taken to Fiona Stanley Hospital in Fremantle.
All four have since been discharged.
While some managed to complete the swim, participants who had not reached the 14-kilometre mark were told to immediately pull out.
“Following advice from the Bureau of Meteorology, Surf Life Saving WA and Marine Rescue Fremantle, the association made the difficult decision to cancel the event in order to protect the safety of its participants,” a statement from organisers said.
“The RCSA [Rottnest Channel Swim Association] is devastated for all our participants. Unfortunately, the weather is now categorised as an extreme risk.”
It is just the second time in the event’s 34-year history the swim has been cancelled due to poor weather conditions.
The last time was in 2007 due to bad weather linked to cyclonic activity in WA’s north.
Weather bureau senior forecaster Luke Huntington said the difficult marine conditions which affected Saturday’s event were unrelated to Ex-Tropical Cyclone Lincoln which threatened the WA coast in recent days.
“So, what we saw with the rough seas today was mainly due to the strength of the winds,” he said.
“They were about 20-25 knots this morning when the race was cancelled but they were a little bit lighter earlier this morning at the start time but progressively got stronger during the morning.”
Tough but necessary call
Rottnest Channel Swim President, Kirsty Bellombra, said it was a tough but necessary call by the organisers.
“We are all devastated,” she said.
“It’s a really, really hard decision to make but we definitely go in with a really clear head and safety is paramount.
“We have a matrix that we plug all of our weather information into, and it tipped over into the ‘extreme risk’ — which is abandoning the event for us.”
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