Top athlete Sam Lake celebrated a fantastic open water swimming achievement at the weekend by beating about 2,500 in the Serpentine Swim race.

The Tavistock Swimming Club member and Tavistock Primary School teacher joined the masses in the two-mile event - one of several distance events on offer at the London lake. She finished in 49m 8s, having negotiated the potential hazards of swimming with hundreds of others.

This festival of long-distance swimming event is part of the London Marathon events series - the London classics - attracting about 5,000 in several swims on one day. Anyone of any ability was invited to take part in the half-mile, one, two or six-mile swims. The two-mile swim is one of three London Classics (the others: London Marathon and Ride London 100). One of the race officials was former Olympic swimmer Cassandra Patten,.

Sam said: “I was so excited to take part in this iconic event. The event was so well organised. When we got to the start, it was great to see long-time swim buddy Cassandra giving us the safety brief. After the race she said she thought my sighting was spot on during the swim, which is very high praise indeed from an Olympic 10km open-water medalist.

“I was worried about the cold but once I got going it was fine. The start was very busy - I felt like I was in a washing machine. This soon calmed down and I got into a nice rhythm.

“I tried to weave between swimmers. The swim was two loops of the lake, the first corner came fairly quickly, then on the longer section which was long but the buoys helped to focus on something ahead.

“The hardest part was battling the wind and low sun in my eyes. Once I swam past the start for the second lap it was plain sailing to the finish dodging a few ducks. Cramp started to set in on the last 500m.”