Nine hardy souls braved the bog waters of north Longford yesterday morning to battle for the title of Irish Bog Snorkelling Champion 2000.
The art involves swimming with "unconventional strokes" down a 60-yard water-filled peat bog trench and back again.
The water was murky and the competition intense as the snorkellers pulled on their flippers and wet-suits, took deep breaths and focused their thoughts on the star prize, an expenses-paid trip to represent Ireland in the World Bog Snorkelling Championships in Wales on August 28th.
Dublin, Clare, Cavan, Longford and even Denmark were represented at the championships. John Cantillon from Dublin was first up and he splashed and spluttered his way through the turgid waters in under a minute (52.61 seconds to be exact).
This amazing time was not to be equalled, despite the efforts of eight other competitors and two dogs.
It seems John may have had an edge over the other competitors as he is a member of an underwater rugby team in Glasnevin. Another sport not yet on the primary school curriculum, underwater rugby is described as "men and women chasing a ball under water with plenty of rubber and plenty of wrestling".
Mr Cantillon described the bog water as "skuttery" and said the secret of his success was "a western step-dance-type kick".
Last year's national champion, Julia Galvin from Listowel, Co Kerry, was in Granard to defend her title and show them how it's done. Speckled from head to foot with bits of bog, she struggled out of the trench extolling the purifying and detoxifying properties of bog minerals.
A late entrant was Suzanne Connolly from Co Clare, who came running across the bog after the competition had started accompanied by four friends, all wearing T-shirts from Linnane's pub. A late decision in the pub on Thursday night had brought the girls on a two-hour dash from Clare to Longford that morning to compete.
The sport basked in the national spotlight yesterday, courtesy of the 2FM Gerry Ryan Show, which was broadcast live from Kilfintan bog near Granard.
The Bog Snorkelling Championships, sponsored by the US ice-cream firm Ben & Jerry's, marked the start of the weekend Granard Music Festival.