50-meter specialists in the pool are athletic examples of controlled, streamlined speed and strength. Their arms swing rapidly; their legs pump up and down quickly inis a six-beat kick or greater; they keep their heads down as they fly down one length of competition pools.
But when do these drop-dead sprinters spend the time and effort to lift up their heads on a fast sprint?
When their event is held in the open water.
The Sea Sprint TLV in Tel Aviv presents this opportunity. The sprinting specialists faced limited underwater visibility and swam without the benefit of underwater lane lines.
Sea-Sprint TLV
The Sea-Sprint TLV is a short-distance open water swimming competition held in the Tel Aviv harbor in Israel, organized by the Israeli Swimming Association, the Tel Aviv Municipality, and the Tel Aviv harbor. There were four knockout rounds of a point-to-point 56.5-meter sprint in the harbor where the swimmers were separate by lane lines. The fastest three swimmers in each heat advanced to the next round while the slowest three swimmers were knocked out.
The swimmers had only 22-30 minutes of rest between the first and second rounds, only 15-18 minutes of rest before the semi-finals where 12 swimmers advanced from the quarterfinals, and 8-10 minutes before the fastest six swimmers advanced to the final heat.
Women’s Results
- Daria Golovaty, US$1,670
- Shain Goland, US$1,000
- Aviv Barzelay, US$835
Men’s Results
- Alexey Glivinskiy, US$1,670
- Meiron Cheruti, US$1,000
- Daniel Krichevsky, US$835
Hagai Ashlagi wrote about his vision for the future of these knockout sprints, “What we saw this weekend in the Tel Aviv harbor was just the beginning. Our vision is clear- the Tel Aviv Sea-Sprint will become an international event, attracting some of the world’s fastest swimmers to race in the heart of Tel Aviv, with substantial prize money worthy of world-class competition. The ISA, the city of Tel Aviv and the Tel Aviv Harbor will continue working together, with sponsors, to make this vision a reality.”
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