Courtesy of Rondi Davies, David Barra, Alex Arévalo, and Laura Picardo of New York Open Water.
Following in the wake of race directors Drury Gallagher and Tom Hetzel and Morty Berger, the circumnavigation swim around Manhattan Island is in able, experienced and detailed-oriented hands of veterans Rondi Davies, David Barra, Alex Arévalo and Laura Picardo of New York Open Water
The 20 Bridges Swim, the successor to the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, is gearing up for its second season in 2017.
Davies describes the busy and dynamic situation and its unanticipated growth. “Our original plan set aside five dates: one in June, August, and September, and two days in July which would enable us to accommodate 60 swimmers or 12 per date. Based on historical demand, we had reason to believe that this would be sufficient to accommodate the open water swimming community; however, within hours of opening registration, we shut down the link with 86 registrations in hand.
An emergency conference call where we decided to add an additional date in August in order to create a total of 72 spots for interested swimmers. We made every effort to assign swimmers to their first choice window in the order received. The back-to-back dates for July and August are seeded by swimmer speed.”
The lineup for 20 Bridges 2017 which can be found here (or below).
“We have entrants from Australia (10), India (1), Croatia (1), Israel (1), Sweden (1), Poland (1), Mexico (6), United Kingdom (12), Ireland (2), Spain (3), USA (42) with representation from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Washington D.C., New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Maine, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington.
33 swimmers are women and 53 are men. Swimmers range in age from 17 to 68. Nine swimmers are 30 and under, twenty swimmers are aged between 31 and 40, 22 swimmers are aged between 41 and 50, 26 swimmers are aged between 51 and 60, 7 swimmers are aged between 61 and 68. Four swimmers will be offered a New York Open Water scholarship.“
But there are still applicants who have not yet been assigned to any of the six dates and are wait-listed in order of their application received. “As openings become available, waitlisted swimmers will be offered a slot to swim based on swimmer order. If a swimmer foregoes an offer to swim on a particular date, they can remain on the waitlist and wait for a more preferable date to open up.
2017 will see a record number of Manhattan circumnavigation swim attempts.“
June 24th Swimmers [Rain date: June 25th]
1 Kurt Dickson Arizona, USA
2 Benjamin Freeman Australia
3 Prabhat Koli India
4 Dina Levačić Croatia
5 Erika Norris Washington, USA
6 Kristian O Donovan Ireland
7 Laura Picardo New York, USA
8 Katie Pumphrey Washington, D.C., USA
9 Cheryl Reinke* South Carolina, USA
10 Ryan Utsumi California, USA
11 Joseph Zemaitis Arizona, USA
12 John Zemaitis Arizona, USA
July 22nd Swimmers [Rain date: July 21st]
1 Larissa Aguedelo Mexico City, Mexico
2 James Braddock New York, USA
3 Clarissa Bruce Suffolk, United Kingdom
4 Dongho Choi New Jersey, USA
5 Jeff Everett California, USA
6 Stephen Key Texas, USA
7 Lester Mangold California, USA
8 Sara Marley London, United Kingdom
9 Alan Morrison New York, USA
10 Javier Olivares Mexico City, Mexico
11 Michael Tyson Virginia, USA
12 Paula Yankauskas Vermont, USA
July 23rd Swimmers [Rain date: July 24th]
1 Boguslaw Ogrodnik Poland
2 Cae Tolman Australia
3 Julie Isbill Australia
4 Emma Radford Australia
5 Guy Cohen Israel
6 Alexis Puhan Switzerland
7 Susanne Baab-Simpson California, USA
8 Eliza Cummings Colorado, USA
9 Susan Knight Maine, USA
10 Kyle Poland Ohio, USA
11 Daniel Gomez Mexico City, Mexico
12 Mark Deans Scotland, United Kingdom
August 19th Swimmers [Rain date: August 18th]
1 Andreas Kaubisch (relay) New York, USA
1 David Wallman (relay) New York, USA
2 Guy Batchelor Hereford, United Kingdom
3 Kevin Cassidy Australia
4 Ian Down London, United Kingdom
5 Julieanne Goode Australia
6 Clair Harris Berkshire, United Kingdom
7 Anne McLindon Maryland, USA
8 Elena Pavlova New York, USA
9 Jamie Ann Phillips Tennessee, USA
10 David Rich California, USA
11 Jennifer Snyder New York, USA
12 Daniel Bryson Bournemouth, United Kingdom
August 20th Swimmers [Rain date: August 21st]
1 Christian Ayala Puebla, Mexico
2 Tara Diversi Australia
3 Fernando Morthera London, United Kingdom
4 Eduardo Porset Llantada Bizkaia, Spain
5 David Ryan Murua Lauquiniz, Spain
6 Jose Ramon Sanz Bizkaia, Spain
7 James Schall New York, USA
8 Karyn Scherer Vermont, USA
9 Izebel Sierra Arenas Mexico City, Mexico
10 Christopher Smith London, United Kingdom
11 Mary Stabinsky Pennsylvania, USA
12 Christopher Willis Hereford, United Kingdom
September 8th Swimmers [Rain date: September 7th]
1 Sue-Ellen Booher Vermont, USA
2 Shannon Cleary Virginia, USA
3 Amy Frick Virginia, USA
4 Lyn Goldsmith New York, USA
5 Mark Johansen Berkhamsted, United Kingdom
6 Scott Kaloust California, USA
7 Lennart Larsson Sweden
8 Ion Lazarenco Ireland
9 Diego Lopez Canary Island, Spain
10 Robin Rose California, USA
11 Kimberly Rutherford California, USA
12 Martyn Webster Switzerland
Waitlisted Swimmers
1 Charles Mitchell Connecticut, USA
2 Stephanie Hopson* California, USA
3 Madeleine Reynolds Switzerland
4 John Muenzer Ohio, USA
5 Jeremy Whelchel New York, USA
6 Tom Linthicum California, USA
7 Gwendalyn Selo Skingley Bedford, United Kingdom
8 John Batchelder Colorado, USA
9 Ana Villanueva Peñacoba Spain
10 Ricardo Ibarra Mexico City, Mexico
11 Kimberly Hill Australia
12 Des Mulcahy Australia
13 Philip Hoyland Manchester, United Kingdom
14 Roderick Smith Australia
* Two of the listed swimmers are nominated for the 2016 WOWSA Awards. Cheryl Reinke is nominated for the World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year and Stephanie Hopson is nominated for the World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year among the following athletes:
World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year Nominees:
1. Victoria Mori (Argentina)
2. Rachele Bruni (Italy)
3. Sharon van Rouwendaal (Netherlands)
4. Olga Kozydub (Russia)
5. Sally Minty-Gravett, M.B.E. (Jersey)
6. Chloë McCardel (Australia)
7. Pat Gallant-Charette (USA)
8. Elizabeth Fry (USA)
9. Cheryl Reinke (USA)
10. Sabrina Wiedmer (Switzerland)
11. Nuala Moore (Ireland)
12. Shelley Taylor-Smith (Australia)
13. Samantha Arévalo Salinas (Ecuador)
14. Jaimie Monahan (USA)
World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year Nominees:
1. Toshio Tominaga (Japan) Tsugaru Channel Crossing
2. Craig Dietz (Jordan-Israel)
3. Sarah Thomas (USA) Lake Powell Crossing
4. Jennifer Figge (USA) Bermuda Triangle Swim
5. Pieter Christian Jongeneel Anderica (Spain) Double Manhattan Circumnavigation
6. Dan Canta (Romania) Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming
7. Sean Conway (Great Britain) Swim Leg of the World’s Longest Triathlon
8. Hudson Brothers (Great Britain) Into the Maelstrom
9. Cristian Vergara (Chile) Easter Island Circumnavigation
10. Jarrod Poort (Australia) Olympic 10K Marathon Swim
11. Javier Mérida Prieto (Spain) Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming
12. Patrick McKnight (USA) Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming
13. Spyridon Gianniotis (Greece) Olympic 10K Marathon Swim
14. Malvinas/Falklands Islands Challenge by Matías Ola (Argentina) and Jackie Cobell (Great Britain)
15. Stephanie Hopson (USA) English Channel Crossing
16. Carol Schumacher Hayden (USA) Catalina Channel Crossing
17. Vasilly Mosin (Russia) Winter Swimming
To vote for the WOWSA Awards, visit here. Online voting continues until December 31st 2016.
Copyright © 2016 by World Open Water Swimming Association