Zammit, Galea win with identical time

The fourth race of the Birkirkara St Joseph Open Water Swimming Series offered an exciting finish after Mark Zammit and Angela Galea, the winners in the men's and women's categories, hit the finishing bouy at the same time in St Paul's Bay.

A record 56 swimmers started the two-kilometre race in one wave around the 500m circuit.

In the men's race, Mark Zammit, Simon Zammit, Luke Bonnici and Roberto Demicoli opened up an early gap on the field.

An attempt in the second lap by Mark Zammit to storm clear of the leading group, brought a quick reaction from Simon Zammit. However, in the latter stages of the race, Mark maintained a comfortable lead to win in 28 minutes 46 seconds.

Simon Zammit was second in 29 minutes 15 seconds and Luke Bonnici finished third in 30 minutes 54 seconds. The latter is the overall leader of the series with an accumulated time of 2 hours 11 minutes 45 seconds.

In the ladies' race, Angela Galea managed to produce the same time as that of her male counterpart. She opened an insurmountable gap over her nearest rivals, Isabelle Zarb and Roberta Zammit, from an early stage. The latter, a relative newcomer to the sport, pushed the veteran Zarb all the way to the finish.

Galea won in 28 minutes 46 seconds. Zarb was second in 33 minutes 25 seconds, ahead of Zammit who finished in 33 minutes 39 seconds. Zarb is leading the overall classification with an accumulated time of two hours 22 minutes 25 seconds.

The next race in this series will be held on Wednesday, August 12, on a distance of four kilometres in preparation for the forthcoming Gozo-Malta Open Water Swimming Challenge which will be organised by Birkirkara SJ Sports Club on Saturday, August 22.