Inaugural Sid Cassidy Open Water Weekend In South Florida Wraps Up

Courtesy: Ramon Walton

This weekend, down at the southern end of the Sunshine State, a group of open water enthusiasts gathered for a very unique experience. For the very first time in this nation, swimmers and spectators were privy to what many consider the hottest new contest in open water racing – The Three Kilometer Knockout.

For a seventy-five-second explanation of how this event works, take a quick look at this World Aquatics descriptive video used to portray the excitement last summer at the Singapore World Championships. The Knockout event actually made its international debut at the 2024 Open Water World Championships, where the USA swept the women’s event with Claire Weinstein winning and Brinkleigh Hansen taking the silver.

Brinkleigh traveled south along with Coach Fred Lewis and many of her Saint Petersburg Aquatics teammates for the occasion and topped the women’s field in the Knockout. In an interesting adjustment to the rules, and in order to provide the finish chute thrills that the event was created to do, officials decided to combine genders. That decision proved beneficial as fans were treated to some sensational racing down the stretch. While Hansen not only won the women’s race, she finished a strong second overall in the furious five-hundred-meter final sprint, ahead of all male competitors except the overall champion Lev Cherepanov. The Kazakhstan National Team member came in with experience after making it through two rounds in the debut of this event at the World Championship level in Singapore last summer.

In the Tradewinds Park edition, Lev was hard pressed down the final stretch by a duo of St. Pete ladies as veteran Becca Mann joined Brinkleigh in battling the big boys. Coming around that final pink buoy, that trio was joined by Cherepanov’s Azura teammate, 30-year-old Uruguayan Maximiliano Paccot, with multiple World Championship appearances on his resume; St. Pete distance ace Cobe Hehenberger,16, and another even younger SPA distance protégé, 14-year-old Sawyer Hansen, as they all sped to the finish board.

In the end, Cherepanov pulled out the victory by five seconds with a 500-meter time of 5:53.1 followed by Brinkleigh Hansen (5:58.3), Paccot (6:01.6), Mann (6:03.3) and Sawyer Hansen (6:07.1). To complete the women’s awards podium, and further proclaim the distance swimming strength of Team Hansen, Karrington Hansen, 17, captured the women’s Bronze in 6:18.6, finishing 9th overall just ahead of 16-year-old Isabella Descent. In addition to the historic Knockout Race in Broward County’s Tradewinds Park, Saturday’s events included races for both age groupers and adults in the Speedo Metric Mile.

Lev Cherepanov. Photo: Kate Cassidy.

Day Two was planned as an opportunity to race the 5-kilometer distance, along with a sprint 1000-meter and a 500-meter splash event for the young ones, but Mother Nature had other plans. The unusually strong winds closed the course planned in the Atlantic Ocean, so the team made a pivot move to the beautiful Duff Tyler Aquatic Complex on campus at Saint Andrew’s School in Boca Raton. Even though it was not the way he had planned to wrap up his Inaugural Weekend, event organizer and namesake Sid Cassidy was encouraged by getting this event off the ground. “We owe our USA Swimmers the opportunity to experience what our counterparts in Europe and Australia have enjoyed for years, exciting and challenging open water competitions. The knockout was created to provide increased thrills for athletes and spectators alike.

In just one hours’ time, swimmers race down that funnel four different times, arguably the most exciting aspect of any open water race, and practice what is one of the most important aspects of elite open water racing, getting through a crowd to that finish pad. The short breaks between heats allow for athletes and coaches to discuss strategy and at the international level, broadcasters can capture their faces and emotions in turn appealing to fans on a much more personal level.”

Cassidy has initiated his pet project with dreams of building it to be a major attraction to open water swimmers of every level. “We are committed to the President’s Weekend dates and plan to expand into a third day and to include our Olympic Marathon distance event, the 10K. We would love to eventually be a part of the new Pan American Open Water Series and share great racing occasions for the world’s best distance athletes, age group swimmers and fitness-minded adults right here in our little slice of paradise”.

The Sid Cassidy Open Water Weekend would not have been complete without a chance for some serious swimmer social mingling. On Saturday afternoon, everyone was invited to a gathering at the Headquarters Hotel that included a special Facebook live-stream event. Following a dozen episodes of STORIES WITH SID on the Florida Swim Network from back in the days of Covid, Cassidy resurrected his shut-down hobby and interviewed three-time Olympic Gold medalist Brooke Bennett about her first Knockout experience. Bennett, the well-known Florida Olympic gold medalists, is currently training mostly on the bike and road as she takes aim to complete her first Ironman competition in 2026 at age 45. Brooke and Sid talked about the future of open water and even brought Brinkleigh Hansen up out of the audience for her award and asked her to share some thoughts, you can watch the replay HERE.

All in all, it was a good start on what should be a memorable namesake event for Cassidy, the longtime Saint Andrew’s School & Aquatics Coach who recently was selected by the International Swimming Hall of Fame as a member of their 2026 Class of Inductees.