It is huge. Gigantic. Humungous. And smoothly efficient. Under the leadership of race director Wayne Riddin, swimmers come from all over the world to participate in the aQuellévMidmar Mile in South Africa.
The world-famous event was recognized as an Honour Organisations by the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame. The aQuellé Mile includes races from 1 mile to 10 km and offers an innovative 8-mile stage race whose participants wear special gold-colored swim caps.
The scale of the Midmar Mile is sometimes best described through factoids that would be fiction in other places: nearly 70 sets of twins who participate…a free car given away to a randomly selected swimmer…a full set of transponders that the race owns to handle up to 18,000 swimmers. “The profits from the event go right back to the swimming community,” explains Riddin. “The event helps grow our sport.”
To an unprecedented scale.
“The IMSHOF extends its hearty congratulations to Wayne and his staff and volunteers on the selection of the Midmar Mile as an Honour Organisation. The Hall of Fame welcomes the South African event as one of the truly great events in our sport of marathon swimming,” said IMSHOF Honorary Secretary Dale Petranech.
“In a part of the world where there are only 6,000 or so registered swimmers, Wayne and the Midmar Mile staff draw nearly 3 times that amount to a dam in Pietermaritzburg in the province of KwaZulu-Natal,” explains Steven Munatones, Vice President of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame. “It is a production that is hard to fathom, but it all works well and smiles abound. People are so committed to its success. They are rightly proud with a heartfelt sense of hospitality that is ingrained in each and every staff members and volunteers. They set the standard for the sport – and they keep on raising the bar year by year.”
The International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame’s Class of 2013 includes the following honorees:
Honour Swimmers include Great Britain’s Lewis Pugh and Nick Adams and Australia’s Melissa Cunningham.
Ned Denison was the recipient of the Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award.
The Honour Administrators include FINA Bureau member Dennis Miller of Fiji and American coach Don Watson
Honour Organisations include the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation from Great Britain.
A Certificate of Merit was issued to the Open Water Swimming Committee of the Indonesian Swimming Federation.
A Pioneer Swimmer recognized by the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame was Rose Pitonof.
ISHOF Finalists included David Yudovin, Mercedes Gleitze, and Dale Petranech.
The names of the honourees, along with 250 other great achievers and outstanding contributors in sport of marathon swimming, will be inscribed on the SEA GODDESS, the official trophy on permanent display at the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Their formal induction will take place during the annual International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame ceremonies. In 2010, the ceremonies were held in the United Nations Building in New York City. In 2011, the ceremonies were held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California.
Copyright © 2012 by World Open Water Swimming Association