Cross Harbour Race: 1970s’ two-time winner Karen Robertson recalls protective baby cream, pollution, chaotic start and lots of fun
- The Cross Harbour race returns on Sunday with 1,500 swimmers tackling the 1km (0.6-mile) route between Wan Chai and Tsim Sha Tsui
- ‘People might grab you and your goggles might come off, so you have to be prepared for all situations’ says two-time winner Karen Robertson
Some things in life just stick with you – or stick on you. For swimmer Karen Robertson it was the barrier cream her mother smothered all over her arms and legs before she jumped into choppy waters with hundreds of other swimmers in the 70s for what was then a crazy, chaotic, but ultimately enjoyable race across a polluted Victoria Harbour.
“The funny thing is I remember my mum making me to wear the oldest swimsuit I had because you would come out of the water with bits and pieces all over you,” she tells SCMP Sport.
“She always covered me in this baby barrier cream that gives you a waterproof coating so I didn’t come out of the water covered in oil.”
Robertson, who represented Hong Kong at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and the 1978 Commonwealth Games, won the women’s Cross Harbour race in 1976 and 1977. Back then it was a wildly different affair.
“It was such a bunfight in the old days. I mean, there was no qualification necessary, there was no stream and we weren’t set off at different times.