3,300-people is the military equal to three-or-four battalions worth of swimmers. I have no idea how they were able to handle that mass of people but they sure do look like they had a lot of fun.From SMH.com
FOR the third year in a row, conditions conspired yesterday to stop the Cole Classic from having a spectacular surf finish at Manly Beach.
Instead, Sydney's great ocean swimming event, sponsored by The Sydney Morning Herald, had to start and finish at sheltered Shelly Beach around the corner.
Forecasts of foul weather and rough sea conditions kept the number of participants down. In the end, 3328 people completed the one kilometre and 2km swims, compared with 3333 last year.
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I think I can say this without any note of hyperbole or politics since it is summarily demonstrable: Open water racing promoters are doing a heck of lot more for the sport of open water swimming than FINA is.
Perhaps FINA should embrace these public endeavors at large rather than just the professional races?
3 comments:
Open water swimming in Australia has a very deep tradition. They - the open water races - are almost like some 10km rood races in the US.
The Alcatraz Sharfest sells out 6-months in advance and allows only 880 swimmers.
The Hermosa/Manhattan Pier to Pier race, a race you have to qualify for, had over 1,000 swimmers.
Ja Jolla registers 1,000 as well.
Most of these races have limits on how many competitors can compete.
"Ocean swims" are huge in Australia.
The majority are community events held as fundraisers for local surf life saving clubs. Many ocean swimmers look down on the Cole Classic due to the corporate nature of the event, but there is no doubt that it provides huge exposure to open water swimming.
As an aside, the best ocean swim in Sydney is not the Cole but "The Big Swim" from Palm Beach to Whale Beach!
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