Triathlete Hospitalised With Bacterial Infection After Open-Water Swim As Welsh Project Tracks Water Quality

A triathlete from Carmarthen has described falling severely ill with a bacterial infection contracted while swimming in open water, an experience that has left him uncertain about returning to the same stretch of sea. Andrew Jones, who competes in races around the world, said the illness struck at the worst possible moment, just over a week before one of the biggest events of his career.

Jones, a keen triathlete who has qualified for the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, this month, contracted Campylobacter after swimming in water he described as dirty. Campylobacter is a bacterial infection that typically causes gastrointestinal illness, and in serious cases can lead to hospital admission.

Recalling the onset of his symptoms, Jones said he began to feel unwell on a Sunday evening at home. His temperature and heart rate climbed, and he began shaking uncontrollably, prompting him to go straight to A&E. He described the experience as pretty nasty and confirmed he was very sick as a result.

The timing proved especially frustrating. Jones said he was admitted to hospital just over a week before one of the biggest races of his life, describing the situation as very bad timing. He added that he felt a degree of annoyance about what had happened, because athletes enter the water with confidence, assuming the environment is clean and suitable for swimming.

That confidence has since been shaken. Jones said the illness has made him think twice about swimming in that particular area again, raising questions about how athletes can be sure the water they train and compete in is safe.

His case has added urgency to an initiative being led by Triathlon Cymru, the national governing body for the sport in Wales. The organisation said its Safer Blue Spaces project, which it describes as the first of its kind, is now deploying small sampling devices on triathletes to test water quality and generate reliable data on conditions in Welsh waters.

The project is run in partnership with Swim Wales, Bangor University and Imperial College London, and is funded by the insurance group Admiral. Its aim is to build a far more detailed picture of what is present in the water at the sites where open-water swimming events take place.

To gather data, competitors at Barry's SWYD Sprint Triathlon in August were pulled aside before their race and fitted with small devices, roughly the size of a fifty-pence piece, attached to the backs of their wetsuits. The wearable passive samplers are designed to travel with swimmers along their exact route through the water.

That approach marks a significant departure from standard practice. Race organisers normally test water to determine whether it is safe for swimming, but that type of sampling has limitations. Samples are typically collected at only one or two locations shortly before an event, meaning the resulting data lacks detail and may not reflect conditions across the full course.

By contrast, the devices used in the Safer Blue Spaces project follow the swimmers' precise path, allowing researchers to capture accurate information about what athletes are actually exposed to during a race. Once competitors finish the swim, they move to the transition area to remove their wetsuits and continue the race, after which the technical team cuts the sampling devices free so they can be sent to Bangor University for analysis.

Amy Jenner, Triathlon Cymru's head of development, said knowing what is in the water is really important for an organisation that puts athletes into it. She noted that Wales hosts roughly 60 events a year, underscoring the scale of the issue and the value of having funding available to carry out research and testing.

Jenner said the findings would allow Triathlon Cymru to go back to athletes, event organisers, Natural Resources Wales and Public Health Wales with a clear picture of the state of Welsh waters. That flow of information could inform decisions about where events are held and what precautions may be needed.

Kate Herridge, a PhD student working on the project, explained the next stage of the scientific work. She said researchers would concentrate the water samples and determine whether any pathogens had attached themselves to the samplers. The devices can then be removed, processed and analysed to detect what is present within them.

Simon Webb, who organises the Barry SWYD Sprint Triathlon, said it was important that athletes could swim without the risk of potentially becoming ill. His comments reflect a broader concern within the sport about the hidden health hazards that can accompany open-water competition.

Triathlon Cymru hopes that in the future it will be able to share the data it collects with environmental agencies and water companies. The organisation believes that doing so would improve understanding of what is in the water and help drive steps to improve the quality of seas, lakes and rivers across Wales.

For Jones, the stakes are deeply personal. An illness contracted in the water cost him valuable preparation time before a major championship and left him wary of a location he had previously trusted. His experience illustrates how water quality is not simply an environmental concern but a direct factor in athlete health, performance and confidence.