Harrogate luxury hotel welcomes great and good of Aufguss world in pioneering event

Rudding Park - the first UK spa to introduce Aufguss - welcomed the great and the good of the spa and sauna world with guests jetting in from as far as Japan for the competition held from April 25-26.

Designed to enhance the benefits of a sauna session to heightening levels of endorphins and serotonin; the Aufguss ritual leaves guests feeling both mentally and physically revived. Benefits range from a meditative state of mind to improving cardiovascular strength, boosting the immune system, as well as alleviating pain.

The UK Aufguss Championships saw Pavel Poliacek, Fitness and Wellbeing Instructor and Sauna Master from Galgorm in Northern Ireland emerge winner of the individual category whowill now go on to represent the UK in the Aufguss World Championships in Satama Sauna resort, Germany in September.

The awards ceremony took place in Rudding Park Chapel and the Rudding Park team also had reason to celebrate as Jena Robinson, Senior Spa Therapist was placed second and will go on to the next stage of play offs, in Norway. Renato Neto, Spa Duty Manager will join Jena as they take their Team Aufguss – ‘a Tribute to Queen Elizabeth’ to the play-offs.

Sarah Johnson, Head of Spa at Rudding Park said “As the first UK spa to introduce Aufguss we were thrilled to host this prestigious event and it was wonderful to see the creativity and passion of all the competitors.

"We are particularly proud of Jena Robinson and Renato Neto from our own spa team who have been training relentlessly and made it through to the playoffs.

"Aufguss is an experience we have been offering to our guests for a number of years now and, together with the British Sauna Society we are keen to increase awareness of the ritual within the industry and to spa goers throughout the country.”

Among the judges at the UK Championships in Harrogate were Lay Pang Ong, Art of Aufguss Champion and regarded as a pioneer of sauna reinvention, and Hideo Yoshida, vice-president of the Japanese Sauna Society.