Courtesy of Hagai Ashlagi
The Port2Port swim, which took place last Friday and hosted the Maccabi Israel Open Water Championship, marks the maturity of the open water swimming in Israel. It was reflected in the fact that some of the fastest Israeli open water swimmers in Israel competed alongside many of the country’s top pool swimmers, including current and former world masters champions. With them, swam hundreds of swimmers of all levels, including open sea rookies on their first experience distance swimming in a salt flavored Mediterranean.
Zoggs’ Open Water Aquatic League – and especially the oldest active race in the league, the Port2Port from the outskirts of Jaffa Port to the outskirts of Tel Aviv Port – has been and remains a fertile conceiving ground for many of the extraordinary marine swimming feats that Israeli swimmers have completed in recent years. From the Cyprus-Israel relay crossing, crossings of the Straits of Gibraltar, full lengths swims of the Sea of Galilee (over 20 kms), English channel crossings, 24 hours of continuous sea swimming, swimming around Manhattan, and more. All of these, without exception, began their sea swimming experiences in the Israeli Zoggs Aquatic League. The extraordinary swimmers who completed these feats all passed first through the Port2Port.
This year, about half of the swimmers that represented Israel at the Rio 2016 Olympics came to celebrate and meet the swimming community at Port2Port. Apart from current European 200 IM European Champion Gal Nevo, Olympians Andy Morez and the Keren Zibner also came to swim and enjoy.
