Swimmers brave rainy weather at 52nd Bernie Butler Open Water Swim in Bahamas

Bahamas: The 52nd edition of the Bernie Butler Open Water Swim took place over the weekend at Coral Beach in Freeport, Bahamas, and offered a qualifying opportunity for competitive simmers.

The event featured four race divisions including the John Bradley 5k, a 1.35 mile race, a half mile relay and Bert Bell one-mile race. The swimming competition attracted a number of enthusiasts despite the rainy weather conditions, making the tides heavier than usual.

The Race Co-ordinator for Bernie Butler Swim, Stacey McBride, said, "Five laps of 1000m was a qualifying event for anybody that wants to represent this country, and then we had the traditional race as a Bernie Butler race. It's one and three-quarter miles straight. Swim down the beach."

She also remarked that the teamwork which went behind putting this race together almost feels like they worked a whole year for three hours. McBride gave a shoutout to her whole committee because everyone worked hard to make the event a huge success.

Also, the Bahamas Aquatics Federation President Algernon Cargill spoke about the Carifta 2025 pre-qualification, as well as the overall organization of the event.

He said, "There were 19 swimmers entered, 12 male and seven females. I'm happy that we had 16 swimmers that finished the course. It was a bit iffy in the beginning, and we had some heavy rains, but nonetheless, we had strong safety measures in place. And, the swimmers, they had a great time swimming."

He also noted that freeport does a great job in organizing open water competitions, and in this regard, he thanked Stacey and her team for organizing an excellent competition.

Notably, one of the participants of the Bernie Butler Open Water called it a 'good race' and added, "It was interesting weather, rainy, sunny, everything the island could bring. We were thankful to have the rainy weather because it brought us great luck. By the time it cleared, we were ready to go, and it was a wonderful swim."