Mahe, in Seychelles, is ready to host the second leg of the 2018 FINA/HOSA Marathon Swim World Series, to take place on May 20 in the Beau Vallon resort. It is the first time Seychelles welcomes this event and the opening Press Conference took place today and highlighted the enthusiasm of the race’s organisers and participants.

On this occasion, David Vidot, Seychelles Swimming Association Chairman said: “We feel very luck to host the prestigious FINA/HOSA Marathon Swim World Series. We have been dreaming of this for a long time and this is our chance to showcase our wonderful island, promote tourism and to encourage swimmers to travel to our world class open water swimming destination. We also want to develop our own swimmers by having them compete on a world stage. Some of our Seychelles swimmers have already competed in Doha, this along with FINA running an officials school that has catapulted open water swimming into the public eye and finally it’s about increasing fitness and wellbeing by promoting the sport of swimming. Whilst Victoria has a 50m public swimming pool, we are running public mass participation open water swims and using the elite swimmers to meet some schools to promote activity and the sport of open water swimming.”

Also present at the press conference were Olympic 10km Marathon Swimming champions and winners of the first World Series race in 2018 (Doha, QAT) Dutch swimmers Sharon van Rouwendaal and Ferry Weertman.

Van Rouwendaal considered: “It’s beautiful here, after breakfast we walked 10 metres to the beach and it was amazing. Every race is different, I come here to learn; in Doha I didn’t make a lot of mistakes, so let’s see here. The water here is pretty warm, but we have been practising so we are adapting.”

Ferry Weertman added: “Seychelles is known as a place to go on your honeymoon, it’s like a paradise, you have beautiful sandy beaches, the sea is so clear, you can sea turtles which is amazing. I’ve been training hard the last few weeks, I’m really excited to see where I stand with the best of the world. The Europeans are still a long way off, which I’m peaking for.”

Sid Cassidy, the FINA delegate, was also an optimistic man: “The enthusiasm of the organising committee is fantastic and FINA is pleased to be here in the Seychelles”.

Giovanna Rousseau, Chief Executive of the national Sports Council, concluded by saying that “for Seychelles the FINA/HOSA Marathon Swim World Series race is the biggest competition ever hosted and we feel very proud.”

The Seychelles is made up of 115 granite and coral islands and situated in the West Indian Ocean some 1500km east of mainland Africa. Known predominately as a luxury tourist destination with some of the world’s best beaches, home to the rare hawksbill turtles and with its welcoming clear blue seas.