PHILIP Seidler won the Pupkewitz Jetty Mile for the fourth year in a row on 27 December while Heleni Stergiadis won the women’s category for the first time.
The 10th Pupkewitz Jetty Mile took place at Swakopmund while sea conditions were mild with not much swell.
There were just over 200 entries with 114 of the swimmers taking part in the full Jetty Mile.
The Jetty Mile swim started at Tiger Reef at 15:30. Seidler took only 20min 24sec to complete the nautical sea mile swim (1.85km) swim and short beach run to the finish line, while the 14 year old Stergiadis won in a time of 25min 13 sec.
Seidler said, “I am very happy to win the Jetty Mile for the 4th consecutive time. I have trained hard and was very focused to defend my title. Being an open water swimmer and competing in 5km events internationally, the Jetty Mile will always be my highlight. This year’s focus was to sprint the entire mile and I was happy to widen the gap. This year’s conditions were not optimal for breaking my own record. I would have preferred bigger swell as I can use the stronger sea currents to my advantage. A big thank you to OTB SPORT and Pupkewitz for hosting the Jetty Mile for the last 10 years. It’s a famous and unique event. Thank you for all the life savers assisting in water safety”.
Stergiadis who was swimming the Jetty Mile Full event for the first time said, “I love open water swimming. I did a number of training swims in the Mole as well as training swims around the Jetty with Dolphins Swimming Club and Phillip so that I could get accustomed to the sea conditions and bigger swell around the Jetty. At the start of the race I was nervous. But once I was in the water I relaxed and focused on swimming. I was very happy and surprised to be first female. I did not expect to win. Thank you Pupkewitz and OTB Sport”.
Over the 10 years that the event has been hosted only Peter Brinkmann has competed in all 10 events. Thorsten Horn, Boris Kullikowski, Mark Brinkmann, Paul Brinkmann and 62 year old Jan Sterk have competed nine times. 65 year old Andreas Obholzer, who was the oldest competitor in the Jetty Mile, has competed in the event five times.
OTB Sport thanked the Pupkewitz Foundation for the generous sponsorship and support of the years. They thanked the Pupkewitz family as well as Mr Shephard, the chairman of the foundation, for their active involvement over all the years. The Pupkewitz Foundation announced a further donation of N$10 000 to the NSR (Nambian Sea Rescue).
