Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
SwimTrek is a provider of guaranteed entry to the Bosphorus Cross Continental Swim, one of the nominees for the 2015 World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year.
The Bosphorus Cross Continental Swim (Samsung Boğaziçi Kıtalararası Yüzme Yarışı) is always in high demand and is not easy to receive a guaranteed spot due to the lottery entry system for international swimmers.
The annual event in the Istanbul Strait that connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara in Turkey, the Bosphorus is the world’s most narrow strait used for international navigation. But most interestingly, a successful crossing enables participants to claim they swam between Asia and Europe.
The event attracts swimmers from across the globe to race across 6.5 km course across the Bosphorus from Asia to Europe.
For 2016, SwimTrek are taking the lottery out of being accepted for 250 international swimmers. No luck involved, just guaranteed slots for interested swimmers. “If this swim is on your 2016 calendar, act quick to secure your place by January 2nd 2016 or before they’re all gone,” explains Mark Burgess, a SwimTrek Open Water Swim Specialist.
“The SwimTrek package runs from July 22nd to 24th in Istanbul, Turkey. Prices from £430GBP includes two nights accommodation, breakfasts, entry into the Bosphorus Cross Continental Swim and transfers on Saturday and Sunday to registration and race village. Price does not include flight, transfers, lunch and evening meals or guided tours. For more information, call 01273 739713 or visit www.swimtrek.com. Further details are here.”
Not only is the swim a continent-to-continent swim, but a crossing enables one to partake in history.
One can define channel swimming to be at least 200 years old. Lord Byron swam across the strait in 1810; his 1 hour 10 minute crossing set the bar for channel swimming and the tone of crossing bodies of water.
As the generations and centuries passed, more and more people were attracted to the challenge of crossing from one shore to the other.
There is no channel crossing like the Samsung Boğaziçi Kıtalararası Yüzme Yarışı in terms of size or global reach. Organized by the National Olympic Committee of Turkey, SwimTrek offers a spot among swimmers from 49 countries and many different cultures.
Nominated for the 2015 World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year and one of the World’s Top 100 Open Water Swims, the Bosphorus is described as follows:
Point-to-point swims in shifting currents and tides always provide the self-satisfaction and challenge that is easy for open water swimmers to understand and feel. But when a swim ties together two of the Earth’s continents in an iconic setting with thousands of other participants, the challenge becomes much more profoundly satisfying. Samsung Boğaziçi Kıtalararası Yüzme Yarışı provides the logistics and safety net for swimmers around the world to swim 6.5 km across the Istanbul Strait between Asia and Europe. Starting on the Asian side of the Bosphorus to Kuruçesme on the European side, the event is so massively popular and well-organized that it is natural the international open water extravaganza has grown from 68 swimmers in 1989 to nearly 5,000 participants. For the professional organization of the event by the National Olympic Committee of Turkey, for the production of a challenging event across a dynamically moving body of water in a such an iconic location, and for the joyful multi-cultural, multi-lingual ambiance of bioprened and neoprened swimmers, Samsung Boğaziçi Kıtalararası Yüzme Yarışı is a worthy nominee for the World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year.
To vote for the WOWSA Awards, visit here. Voting continues until December 31st 2015.
Copyright © 2015 by World Open Water Swimming Association