Lake swim top 15 in world

Photo: Bill Everitt - Castanet File Photo

Quite a coup for Kelowna's annual Interior Savings Across The Lake Swim.

The event has been recognized as one of the world's top open water swims.

The top 100 list of open water swims was compiled by Open Water Source, a corporation that manages a comprehensive online guide to the sport of open water swimming.

The Across The Lake Swim was ranked 15th in the world for open water swim events.

It's the first time the event has been rated in the top 100.

The event, held for the first time in 1949 will celebrate its 67th consecutive race on July 18.

It's Canada's oldest and largest open water swim event in Canada.

It began as a component of Kelowna's annual Regatta celebration.

Steven Munatones, founder of the World Open Water Swimming Association and Open Water Source, offered the Across The Lake Swim Society President Mark Fromberg his personal congratulations since this is the first time that the swim has made this prestigious list.

“We now have world recognition” says Mark Fromberg. “Our team has worked very hard to build a safe, fun, family event and it feels great to be recognized by Openwaterpedia as one of the top open water swims in the world.”

The World Top 100 Open Water Swims is an esteemed group of events covering every continent, in both fresh and salt water, and includes a wide variety of distances, from half a mile to ultra-marathon distances, such as the 28.5 mile circumnavigation known as the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. 

Criteria to make the list include: history, uniqueness, popularity, difficulty, attention to safety, and geographic distribution.

The Across The Lake Swim is one of two Canadian events to crack the top 15. The Traversée Internationale du lac St-Jean came in at number 9.

The top open water swim in the world is run out of South Africa.