What an event! We from Kiel Marketing and The Bay Areas are still very excited and overwhelmed by the many participants, the cheerful and relaxed atmosphere and the numerous familiar and new faces we met at the Lighthouse Swim Open Water Kiel 2022 have met and gotten to know each other.
The evening before, you could already feel the good mood and anticipation for the actual swim the next day. Good-humored swimmers, paddlers, volunteers, marine conservation partners, sponsors and supporters as well as members and friends of The Bay Areas came together at the Camp 24/7 for the official Lighthouse Swim opening reception.
After the official welcoming address by City Councillor Christian Zierau, Axel Schulz and Dirk Lonnemann reported on the origins and the idea of the event, which is now taking place in Kiel for the second time. Lighthouse Swims:
The city partnership between Kiel and San Francisco as well as the contacts and friendships made through it have made this great Sport and marine conservation event and let it grow. In April of this year, more than ten swimmers from Kiel flew to San Francisco for the Lighthouse Swim and swam from Alcatraz into the bay of the partner club SouthendRowing Club "fled." We were therefore all the more delighted to welcome our swimmer friends from San Francisco to Kiel again this year.
The event started on Saturday morning with the accreditation and safety briefing for the athletes in Schilksee. Around 10 a.m. our "Marine conservation ambassador" jumped into the waters of the Kiel Fjord. A total of 173 swimmers and paddlers set off to complete either the Beach Track (4km) or the Fjord Track (14 km) to master. Above all the Garbage cleaning ship "Seekuh" from OEOO (One Earth One Ocean), which carried out a clean-up campaign in the Kiel Fjord as part of Lighthouse Swim.
The highlight of this year's event was the impressive Live broadcast of the swim via several cameras and drones onto a 3 x 5 meter screen in the event area. The Kiel sports icon Bernd
Lange and the experienced sports presenter Ingo Meyer presented and commented on the event in a skillful double act. With this Public Viewing the spectacular open water swim was made transparent for the public to experience live for the first time. Viewers at home were able to follow the live stream on their screens.
Here are some sporting highlights:
- 15-year-old Frederick Tietje was the fastest to reach the finish line. Beach track course in 00:56:40 swam.
- 25-year-old Sebastian Engel from Kiel was the fastest to finish the race. Fjord track in 3:40:40 completed.
Sincerely Congratulations on this great achievement!
Accompanying marine conservation event program:
At the same time as swimming, the Reventlouwiese from 10:00 - 18:00 o'clock a varied supporting program with over 15 different information and hands-on stands for the public. In addition to the public viewing, there was an exciting infotainment program on stage consisting of interviews and film contributions as well as live music from local musicians. Our young visitors were treated to Face painting, painting fabric bags and entertaining environmental education from the "m'atelier am See" will be entertaining. The popular Kiel food trucks Johns Burger and PANJANS and drinks from Czernys and Bakelit provided for the physical well-being of the visitors.
We would like to thank our implementation partners for their active cooperation and support for this fantastic event:
– OKSH
– GEOMAR
– Ocean Re-Creation Challenge powered by Transmartec
– Cinemare International Sea Film Festival
– DLRG
A big thank you also goes to our sponsors and supporters, without whose support such a large event could not be realized:
– Schleswig-Holstein - The Minister President
– Trionics
– Carstensen import and export
– Hey
The video report from Schleswig-Holstein Magazin and the recording of the livestream
are under www.lighthouse-swim.de to find.
We are already looking forward to the Lighthouse Swim Open Water 2023