2018 - Monica Kok swam across the Ijsselmeer

On Wednesday, 25 July 2018 Monica Kok has swom across the Ijsselmeer from Stavoren (Friesland) to Medemblik (Noord‐Holland) in 7h 02min.

After months of severe training, Monica, one of our club's members swam across the Ijsselmeer in the northern part of the Netherlands. Monica joined our swimming classes since the beginning of this year and she has been training hard to face that challenge with the best possible condition and background technique. Her results are self-speaking.

On behalf of all our club members, we congratulate Monica for her successful endeavour and we are looking forward to sharing with her many more swimming laps at the pool and open water events in the future.

"I swam the race of my lifetime! The sun was shining, and with a water temperature of 25oC and little northern wind, the water surface was nice and flat." Says Monica, an enthusiast swimmer and member of the ESTEC Triathlon Club.

Monica’s Coach/trainer Marcel van der Togt (Netherlands' champion marathonswimming, trainer of the Dutch National long distance team) and ESTEC Triathlon Club’s trainer Petra Hoek (also former Dutch National swimming champion in the ‘80s) followed Monica out on the support boat. The first 10 Km went smoothly, as it took her just three hours, including drink breaks. After 12 Km the sun faded away and the wind and waves increased quite a bit.

"I found the waves to be quite forceful and started to feel seasick". According to Marcel though, the Ijsselmeer waves were normal for a force‐3 wind. Just before crossing the finish, waves got even wilder. Again, coach Marcel stated that those were the usual conditions for these waters.

Covering a distance of approximately 22 Km, Monica (60) swam across the Ijsselmeer water in 7 hours and 2 minutes.
Marcel Schouten (20) is the record‐holder with an incredible time of 4 hours and 18 minutes, set back in 2012, while it took 12 hours and 47 minutes to TV‐celebrity star Beau van Erven Dorens (43), some time ago.

Monica is usually training in the afternoons, with the ESTEC Triathlon Club members, at the AQUAMAR swimming pool in Katwijk.