Jetty Mile part of Pupkewitz’s legacy
The annual holiday event attracted over 200 swimmers that will swim from the Tiger Reef Beach Bar, past the Jetty to the Mole, a distance close to a mile long.
According to organisers of the event, Otb Sport, the number of participants has increased over the years. “We expect around 200 people to show up and that is a tremendous growth seeing that we only started with 50 participants back in 2007.”
A wetsuit is recommended for all participants as the water temperature is usually cold at this time of the year. “Swimmers will need to get past the breakers into the open water. The current is on the side of the swimmer but the water can be very rough.”
For the less confident sea swimmers there will be a sprint event in the more protected waters of the Mole. The distance is approximately 600m and again wetsuits are recommended due to cold sea temperatures.
N$24,000 in prizes is up for grabs and the first overall male and female winner in the Jetty Mile will each win N$1000.
There are also additional prizes for positions in the age categories and in the sprint event as well as lucky draw prizes. The Pupkewitz Jetty Mile is part of Harold Pupkewitz’s legacy.
The event was won last year by siblings Florian and Silja Hentzen. They will be in contention again this year with the intention of making it two wins in a row. Boris Kulikowski was a mere 2 seconds behind Florian in 2011, and after years of competing Boris is hungry to get the title.