Eager swimmers gathered Saturday morning at the second event in the City Swim UAE series, taking place at Le Meridien Abu Dhabi. City Swim UAE, held over four emirates, is the UAE’s largest open water series with each event seeing swimmers of all ages covering a range of distances varying from 250 meters to 2,500 meters.

Paul Clement from France was fastest in the 2,500 metre race with a time of 34 minutes, 17 seconds, closely followed by Nic Roselt with a time of 34:22. Both were a stretch ahead of third-place Candice Saxod in 38:36.

In the 1,000 metre race, Eric Bradley achieved the fastest time in 12:08, followed by Rebecca Wenden in 16:13 Hannah Dean in third with 17:41.

The 500 metre race saw an all-female podium finish, with Isabelle Darling coming in first with a time of eight minutes, 24 seconds. She was followed by Christelle Feghali with a time of 08:49 and in third place was Yara Feghaly in 09:32.

The 250 metre race saw Kirstie Mackenzie winning in just 07:07, followed by Alexander Norman (09:18) and Robert Dean (9:46).

The event was attended by Olympian, Keri-anne Payne, who took part in the 1,000 metre race and presented the awards for each category and age group to all the swimmers at the prize giving and celebratory breakfast.

Originating from the canals in Amsterdam and Hudson River in New York, the open water swimming event will move to other locations in the UAE. The next event takes plate at Sharjah’s Sheraton Sharjah Beach Resort & Spa (February, 4 2017) and Ajman at the Ajman Saray (March, 4 2017), while further locations are expected to be added later in the year.