Competitors jump into the ice water pool in the Songhua River as the starting gun fires at the Harbin International Winter Swimming Invitational Tournament on Jan 5, 2014. [Photo by Liu Yang/Asianewsphoto]

Competitors swim in the ice water pool in the Songhua River at the Harbin International Winter Swimming Invitational Tournament on Jan 5, 2014. [Photo by Liu Yang/Asianewsphoto]

Russian swimmers greet audiences from the ice water pool in the Songhua River at the Harbin International Winter Swimming Invitational Tournament on Jan 5, 2014. [Photo by Liu Yang/Asianewsphoto]

Ranging in age from 14 to 72, more than 700 winter swimmers from China and Russia participated in the Harbin International Winter Swimming Invitational Tournament at the frozen Songhua River in Daoli district, Harbin, capital of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, on Jan 5.

As part of the 31st Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival, the tournament was jointly hosted by the Harbin municipal federation of trade unions and Harbin municipal bureau of sports and will last for two days.

Swimmers will compete in 16 group games in the 25-meter upriver breaststroke and freestyle in an ice water pool in the frozen Songhua River with outdoor temperature around minus 18 C. Since temperatures in winter rarely hit minus 10 C in South China, the tournament condition is a great challenge for swimmers from the south.

A breaststroke game was held right after the opening ceremony. Li Jian of the Ewenki Glacier Team from Inner Mongolia and Wu Yuan of the Jiande Winter Swimming Team from Zhejiang province won the men’s and women’s junior group championship, respectively.

Huang Kaixun of the Cangnan County Winter Swimming Team from Zhejiang and Jiang Suming from the Leshan Team in Sichuan province were champions of the men’s and women’s middle-aged group, respectively.

Heilongjiang swimmers Zhang Yongbo from Harbin and Li Zuguo from Qiqihar won the championship for the first and second division of the men’s senior group, respectively. Dai Wenyan and Lv Xiuhua from Harbin won the championship of the first and the second division of women’s senior group, respectively.