Champions Matthew Pelser and Tayla Bruce return to defend their titles in Saturday’s Breathe World Ocean Day Swim at the Durban Beach Club.
With a big entry once again for South Africa’s biggest ocean open-water swimming event, Pelser and Bruce look likely to be the swimmers to beat in the main 5km race off the Durban beachfront.
A year ago the pair were clear winners, with Pelser emerging from the surf almost three minutes ahead of Jake Borrageiro, while Bruce enjoyed an even more emphatic victory when she beat Tasnim Nabbie by more than five minutes.
This weekend’s swim will once again see packed fields in the 800m, 1.6km “mile”, 3.2km and main 5km races, however, while the event provides both competitive and recreational swimmers with a vehicle to test themselves over a full range of distances, the event has a much more serious purpose.
The driving force behind the event is Sarah Ferguson, a record-breaking long-distance swimmer who is also the passionate CEO of Breathe Conservation, the official beneficiary of the event. Ferguson uses the event to raise awareness and raise funds for Breathe’s fight against ocean and beach pollution in general, and more specifically the removal of plastic.
Ferguson herself is still very competitive, and the Guinness World Record holder as the first person to circumnavigate Easter Island, was third last year, just a few seconds off the shoulder of Nabbie and is a good bet for a podium place once again this year.
All three podium-placed swimmers from 2024 – Bruce, Nabbie and Ferguson – are taking part, but Bruce, who also claimed a win in the 3.2km event at the most recent Dolphin Mile Surf Swim preparation event at the same venue, is clearly the favourite.
The top trio from last year could face strong challenges in their efforts to lock out the podium this year, most notably from Carina Hambloch who was fifth last year, and Jenna-Mae Lally, who has been showing some impressive form recently, also grabbing a win in one of the earlier 3.2km races at the Dolphin Mile Surf Swim series.
On the men’s side, Pelser will be wary of Gary Albertyn, who last year occupied the bottom step of the 5km podium. The pair have a history of racing each other in the World Ocean Day Swim with Albertyn beating Pelser into second-place in the 3,2km event in 2023, before Pelser was able to power away in the longer event last year.
Wayne Willetts just missed out on a top-three place last year and will be aiming to muscle his way among the big names this year, while Arjun Ramkaran has enjoyed some impressive results in the Dolphin Mile Surf Swim Series and will be hoping to cause an upset.
Although unlikely to be among the top contenders, one well-known international swimming star that will be watched with interest is Olympic breaststroke silver medallist, Terence Parkin.
Parkin, already the Deaflympics’ most decorated athlete with 29 gold medals, 1 silver and 1 bronze to his name, is training for the Tokyo Deaflympics in November and is using the World Ocean Day Swim as part of his preparations.
