A record number of swimmers took part in the fourth race of the Birkirkara St. Joseph Open Water Swimming Series held recently at St. Paul’s Bay, where both winners in the males’ and females race, Mark Zammit (photo) and Angela Galea respectively, hit the finish buoy at the same time.

Fifty-six swimmers started the two kilometre race in one wave around the 500 metre circuit. In the men’s race Mark Zammit, Simon Zammit, Luke Bonnici and Roberto Demicoli opened an early gap on the field.

An attempt in the second lap by Mark Zammit to escape from this leading group, brought a quick reaction by Simon Zammit.

However, at the later stages of the race, Mark sustained a comforatble lead to win in 28 minutes 46 seconds. Simon Zammit was second in 29 minutes 15 seconds and Luke Bonnici finished third in 30 minutes 54 seconds. The latter is the overall leader of the series with an accumulated time of 2 hours 11 minutes 45 seconds.

In the females’ race, Angela Galea managed to win the race with the same time as that of her male counterpart. She opened an insurmountable gap from the beginning, over her nearest rivals Isabelle Zarb and Roberta Zammit.

The latter, a relative newcomer to the sport, pushed the veteran Zarb all the way to the finish buoy. Galea won in 28 minutes 46 seconds. Zarb was second in 33 minutes 25 seconds, ahead of Zammit who finished in 33 minutes 39 seconds. Isabelle Zarb is leading the overall classification with an accumulated time of two hours 22 minutes 25 seconds.

The next race in this series will be held on 12 August, on a distance over four kilometres in preparation for the forthcoming Gozo-Malta Open Water Swimming Challenge which will be organised by Birkirkara St. Joseph Sports Club on Saturday, 22 August.