50 swimmers take part in this year΄s Albania-Corfu swim
CORFU. The Albania Overboard Fundraising Swim event took place on Saturday 2 September.
The Albania Overboard swimming event was successfully held on Saturday 2 September. It is a 3km swim starting from the Albanian side (at Examilion) and finishing in Corfu (Agios Stefanos).
Albania Overboard is a philanthropic project that began in 2014 when a group of nine friends decided to swim from Albania to Corfu, in order to support local environmental initiatives and a children's charity foundation.
50 athletes of all ages swam on Saturday and they all finished in less than an hour and 45 minutes. The swim was quite challenging as there was a slight wave and currents in the area.
This year's proceeds from the event went to support the Ionian Environment Foundation's programmes for marine life protection (Ionian Dolphin Project, Reposidonia, etc.). Part of the proceeds will also go to support the Corfu Fire Department in the form of equipment.
The organisers Nick Cookson and Nick Lemis would like to thank everyone who helped to organise and make the event safe. Special thanks go to the Corfu Coast Guard as their presence was very important in coordinating everything to ensure the safety of the swimmers, as well as the North and Central Corfu Municipalities that also contributed to the safety of the athletes since they provided us with the civil protection boats for the day. The safety of the athletes was also ensured by all the boat owners who sailed around the swimmers throughout the event.
The event was made possible with the help of Chris Peacock and his partners at Four Seas Yachting as they took care of all the communication with customs and the processing of the required documents for the boats that crossed into Albanian waters as well as for the return of the athletes to Greece.
We would also like to thank the following for their contribution to the event:
- Ionian Lifesaving School
- General Clinic "Alexandros Mastoras"
- Kassios Dias
- Social Cooperative Enterprise (KOINSEP) SynPraxis Sinies
- Sinies Educational and Cultural Society
- Cava Tzortzatos, Damianos Bar, Galini Restaurant
- Voulgaris Hospitality Group
- Ionian Environment Foundation
- Doctors Spyridoula Tsioli and Varvara Dolianiti
- Louise Katsarou, Anthoula Tsirimiagou, Helen Crainey and Kelsie
