Natasha Rusheinski had a good day on Saturday.

The Deloitte/Ogier Summer Splash Swim, which Ms. Rusheinsk

i helped organise at Smugglers Cove, drew a large crowd for the second year in a row and she took first place in the mile race. Ms. Rusheinski finished nearly five minutes ahead of the second-place swimmer with a time of 34:24 minutes.

 

The Summer Splash had more than 50 participants almost matching the 60 swimmers from last year. The swimmers included eight kids that competed closer to shore this year.

“I think it turned out well this year,” Ms. Rusheinski said. “We had a good turnout. There was a good amount of swimmers for each race. I enjoyed the kids races.”

She hopes to add more  swimming competitions on Tortola in the future.

“We started the race last year because there wasn’t any ocean swims on Tortola,” Ms. Rusheinski said. “There are races on St. John, and Virgin Gorda has Swim the Sound, but we wanted to do one locally.”

Jaendri Engelbrecht earned second place swimming one mile in 39:12 minutes. She had a fifth-place finish in the two-mile race at the Swim the Sound event, but said the Summer Splash was a more challenging event due to the water conditions.

“The race was great,” Ms. Engelbrecht said. “There was a strong current going against us at the start of the race so it was tough, but it’s beautiful weather so it was a good day. I swam longer at Swim the Sound, but today was a bit tougher because of the current. The water was a bit rougher on the last stretch of the race, too.”

John Argyros took third overall in the one-mile event, but was the first man to come ashore after the race. The women took most of the top spots,  including seven of the first 10 finishers in the longest race. The trend continued in the half-mile race with eight of the top 10 finishers being women. Cat Ouriach earned second place after swimming the race in a time of 19:28 minutes. Sisters Elinah and Amarrah Phillip finished in first and third places with times of 18:37 and 19:39, respectively.

The Phillip sisters also swam in the Kids Over-12 Division earning first and second places.  Dekembe Parsons earned a third place in that division, while Dominic Munro won the 6- to 12-year-old Division. Derek Pettigrew and Floriana Christie rounded out the top three. The Under-6 Division went to Max Christie and Sutton Tombs took second place.

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