This time the participants had to swim 1852 meters which is one nautical mile. Ghidighici is also known as “The Chisinau Sea”, that’s why we chose this unit of measurement.

101 athletes gathered to test their strength, enjoy swimming, meet new people and socialize. It’s almost twice as much as last year. By the way, this year the competition acquired international status as we had an athlete from Ukraine, Svetlana Grabchenko, who came from Odessa to take part in the swim and competed in the professional category.

The participants started from the territory of the yacht club to the accompaniment of the orchestra of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Of course, before the start everyone did a warm-up under the guidance of Artem Gladun, trainer of the sports school №6.

The finish line was marked on the beach of GOA Territory recreation area. By the way, all the fans could follow the competition watching Play.mdlive broadcasts displayed on plasma screens.

Valentina Semirunchik, head athletic trainer of the sports school №8, served as chief judge of the competition.

Many athletes took part in the swim for the second time. For example, Anna Semirunchik, became the winner in the women’s professional category for the second time. But Alexey Sankov, last year’s winner in men’s category, who will represent Moldova at the Youth Olympic Games in China, didn’t retain his title losing one second to Vladimir Naleykin, a swimmer from Tiraspol.

Vera Nikitina became the winner in the female amateur category. In the male amateur category Alexander Adnagulov was the first to complete the swim. He celebrated his victory by proposing to his girlfriend! So Sporter Weekend is not just about sport! 😉

Of course, the difference between the first and the last athlete who crossed the finish line was huge- 24 minutes against 1 hour 18 minutes, but the most important thing is that only 12 swimmers out of 101 couldn’t cover the whole distance. They were safely brought to the shore by the boats of Emergency Department that were patrolling the waters during the swim. We should also mention Victor Turkuman, who swam the entire distance at the age of 76!

After the swim all the participants were invited to a sports banquet consisting of fruits, Vita juices and OM drinking water. As for kitesurfing master-class, unfortunately, it didn’t take place due to lack of wind. We were really lucky with the weather that day as thunderstorms finally gave way to the summer sun.

The winners of the swim were awarded with diplomas, medals and gifts from Sporter.md, Shark, Orhei-Vit and Oriflame. Professional swimmers received cash prizes: 1000 lei for the first place, 600 lei- for the second place and 400 lei- for the third place.

By the way, the trainers of professional athletes who participated in the swim also received pleasant gifts from Oriflame.

Next year the sports social network Sporter.md promises to organize even larger and more spectacular open water swimming competitions! So stay with us!

The results of the swim can be found below.

Female professional category

Male professional category

Female amateur category

Male amateur category

Overall ranking