It proved to be a remarkable year for QEII schoolteacher Carole Laporte during 2025.

First off, she was selected for Team GB at the International Ice Swimming Association (IISA) World Championships held in January at Molveno, Italy.

In the one-kilometre blue ribband event she won silver in her age group with a time of 16 minutes 10.59 seconds.

Her next challenge couldn’t have been more different as it was one of pure endurance in somewhat warmer waters (19 degrees Celsius), swimming non-stop round the island of Jersey, 50 kilometres (31 miles) as compared to 1km for the ice swim.

Laporte completed this ultra marathon swim in an incredible 10 hours 25 minutes at the end of July.

Come the winter of 2025, Laporte was back into ice swimming and headed to Dublin for the IISA Ireland National Championships.

As in the past, she had balanced her swim training with time spent in the sea and pool, complemented by gym, yoga, cycling and running - with a 5km walk weekday lunchtimes for good measure!

This build up worked well and put Laporte in top form for the Irish Championships on December 20.

The venue sits next to the shores of Dublin Bay. Clontarf Outdoor Pool is a 40-metre seawater pool with five lanes and is a little reminiscent of the (smaller) Victorian lidos once present in the Isle of Man.

The entries for the Ireland Championships came not just from the host country but also from Great Britain, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Brazil, France, the Netherlands and of course the Isle of Man.

The overseas entrants were permitted to race and were included in the IISA overall results but understandably were not included in the Irish national results or prizes.

Ahead was a tight schedule, finishing work Friday for the 5.30pm flight to Dublin, overnighting and then 8am registration on Saturday.

Having lived and worked in Dublin for four and half years, she was fortunate to have local friends who put her up for the night and fed her the traditional pasta bolognese carb loading dinner and in the morning scrambled eggs on toast, the ‘breakfast of champions’.

Saturday morning began with registration at 8am followed by the requisite medical, prior to the start of the first heat of the one-kilometre race at 8.45am, but for Laporte it was a three-hour wait for heat eight.

A seed time of 15:55.57 made her the fastest woman and consequently she was put into the last heat which was otherwise all male.

But there was potential female competition in heat seven from Brazil, Ireland and South Africa with respective seed times of 16:00.00 (only four seconds slower), 16:54.37 and 17:00.00.

The Brazilian woman, Alessandra Rossi Cima, was a particular force to be reckoned with, being a Seven Oceans Swimmer.

It was an emotional swim for Laporte as it was her late mother's birthday but feeling her presence made the swimmer ever stronger, leaving two of the four men in her wake.

As if to prove that Laporte was swimming in the male heat, the swimmer in the adjacent lane actually lost his trunks during the race and continued as nature intended - fortunately, a towel was provided at the finish!

Laporte was not distracted as she was already in front with her mind firmly set on a fast time. And fast it was: 15 minutes 49 seconds which was a personal best by seven seconds. A faultless swim.

Female one-kilometre results: 1, Carole Laporte (Isle of Man) 15 minutes 49.00 seconds; 2, Jacqueline O’Connor (Ireland) 16:44.00; 3, Carmel Collins (Ireland) 16:45.00.

No time to rest on her laurels though, by the time Laporte was out of the water from the 1km she had only one hour to go before the 250-metre race.

Laporte's estimated time for the race was around four minutes but returning to the icy water after only an hour recovery meant this was not going to be easy.

Always up to a challenge though, she completed the distance in four minutes 10 seconds, bettering the second swimmer by almost two minutes.

Female 250m results: 1, Carole Laporte (Isle of Man) 4 minutes 10.00 seconds; 2, Eva Wilkinson (Ireland) 5:59.00; 3, Mary Lowry (Ireland) 6:43.00.

So, after two phenomenal swims, Laporte was the outright female winner of both the 1km and the 250m events for which she was awarded the IISA overall winner, beating the host country and overseas swimmers.

Additionally, she was third fastest swimmer overall in the 1km event with only two men bettering her time.

But the sting in the tail was that the water temperature was 6.6 degrees, 1.6 degrees above the crucial five degrees required for ice swim ratification - an unfortunate and ongoing problem for GB and Irish events.

NIGEL HENDY