The open water swimming championships, organised by Birkirkara St Joseph and sponsored by Vileda, came to an end last week with Neil Agius and Michelle Vella Wood claiming the title in their respective categories.

The final in the six-race series, a four-kilometre swim held at Salina, attracted a record number of 102 participants.

Agius swam the four one-kilometre loops in a time of 51 minutes, 11 seconds, to see off his nearest rivals Mats Westergren (52:25) and Nico van Duijn (52:26). Agius was unbeaten throughout the whole championship races, accumulating an overall time of 2 hours, 37 minutes.

Roberto Demicoli was second in 2 hours, 54 minutes, 4 seconds, while Keith Galea finished third in 2 hours, 54 minutes, 32 seconds.

Dylan Cachia (3:11:47) won the Under-14 category, Zac Cutajar (3:03:55) was first in the Under-17, Graham Borg (2:54:34) won the Masters A, Joseph Zerafa Boffa (3:22:09) prevailed in the Masters B, and Twanny Fenech took top spot in the Masters C category.

In the women’s race, Michelle Vella Wood clocked 1 hour, 3 minutes, 4 seconds, to win the final event and the championship. Marian Belsten (1:07:41) was second and Margaret Seguna third in 1 hour, 9 minutes, 20 seconds.

Vella Wood’s overall time was 3 hours, 14 minutes, 49 seconds. Belsten was second in 3 hours, 18 minutes, 27 seconds, and Seguna third in 3 hours, 21 minutes, 53 seconds.

Sarah Bonnici (3:38:20) was first in the Under-17 category, Bettina Spencer (3:57:35) won the Masters A, Donatelle Camilleri (3:31:56) topped the Masters B, and Debbie Caruana Dingli (3:59:07) was first in the Masters C.

A prize fund of €1,000 was divided among the top three finishers in the male and female categories.

A total of 197 swimmers took part in these championships, forcing the organisers to start the races in two separate waves.

The final open water swimming event of the year will be the annual Malta-Gozo-Malta and the Gozo-Malta races, to be organised by Birkirkara St Joseph this Saturday.

In a statement, Birkirkara SJ thanked the sponsors, the Ports and Yachting Directorate of Transport Malta, and the Naxxar Local Council for their assistance throughout the championships.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.