The annual swim across the Maltese archipelago organised by Birkirkara St. Joseph Sports Club under the auspices of the Aquatic Sports Association of Malta, will this year be held next Saturday. Swimmers will take off from Ras il-Qala in Gozo at 8.15am for a five-and-a-half-kilometre swim to Marfa in Malta.

This event has become the highlight of a now established Open Water Swimming season, which has been gaining popularity especially in the last couple of years. This year, Birkirkara St. Joseph’s Swimming Board has 110 swimmers from various clubs, registered in its open water swimming championships, which are held over six events, five on a distance of two kilometres, and one four kilometres long. Swimmers will have to qualify through these championships in order to be eligible to take part in the Gozo-Malta channel crossing.

Under the headship of Ms Isabelle Zarb, the club’s Swimming Board has made various amendments to the Gozo-Malta swimming event, notably establishing the event both as a challenge for those who want to take it up as such, and as a race which attracts some of Malta’s top swimmers.

As in the previous years, Birkirkara St. Joseph Sports Club has teamed up with INSPIRE to raise funds through this event in favour of this charitable institution.

PowerBar and Yellow Pages (Malta) Ltd. will be assisting Birkirkara St. Joseph Sports Club in this event.