The Samsung Bosporus Cross Continental Swimming Race has been selected as the “Best Open Water Swimming Race” by the World Open Water Swimming Association (WOWSA) that places the race first in list of 100 open water races.
The race, organised by the Turkish Olympic Committee (TOC) since 1989, sees swimmers from all across the world swim a 6.5km route from Kanlıca on the Asian side of Istanbul to Kuruçeşme Cemil Topuzlu Park on the European side. It is the world’s only inter-continental swimming competition. This year’s event was held on 23 July and saw 2,147 swimmers from 49 countries take part. The general class champions were Kristina Kochetkova with 54 minutes 57 seconds for women, and Evgeny Eliseev, with 50 minutes 58 seconds for men, both from Russia.