PANAJI: As many as 804 swimmers from across India have registered to take part in the 10th Goa Swimathon to be held at the Vainguinim beach near the Cidade de Goa hotel, Dona Paula on March 28 and 29.
Enduro Sports Goa, organisers of the event expect the total tally of swimmers to increase further, with the last date for registrations being fixed for March 10. Swimmers can register online at www.endurosportsgoa.com
Mumbai city with 270 swimmers, Bengaluru with 143 swimmers, Pune with 117 swimmers and hosts Goa with 43 swimmers lead the swimmers tally. International participants include swimmers from Australia, UK, Germany, Italy, Japan, Nepal, Netherlands and the USA.
Races will be held in the 250 metres sprint, 1 km, 2 km, 5 km, 10 km (Individual) and 15 km (Team relay) events. The 2 km race has drawn maximum response with as many as 291 swimmers registered in this category, while 182 swimmers have registered for the 5km race.
Speaking to media persons in the city on Saturday, Elias Patel, co-founder, Enduro Sports Goa said, “To commemorate our tenth anniversary, we have designed a 15 km relay swim for the first time this year. We are genuinely elated with the response. This proves that open water swimming is becoming popular in our country.”
Age is no bar in this sport. The youngest swimmers include eight-year olds Sidish Sundar of Bengaluru and Iyana Patel of Nashik, both taking part in the 250 metres race. Likewise, the oldest swimmers include Gopal Rao (74) of Bengaluru taking part in the one and 5 km races, while another Bengaluru swimmer, Lalitha Vijayaraghavan (69) will take part in the one km race.
While the Hotel Cidade de Goa - IHCL SeleQtions are the location partners, other sponsors and partners include, Baliwalla and Homi (General sponsor), Swim Care (General sponsor), UP-TK (Hydration partner), Manipal Hospitals, Goa (Medical partner), Drishti Marine (Safety and Rescue partner), Clube Nautilus de Goa (Logistics partner), Weddings and Dreams (Production partner), Bay 15 (Refreshment partner), Sportzilla (Timing partner) and Hypercube Technologies (Digital media partner).