KEY STATS: 205 entries, 194 on the start line, 152 Finishers! See how fast they swam at the bottom of the page…
Back to Montenegro for a third time, and it would prove a trickier set of weather conditions than the sun-soaked #2 event in 2023 - but once the thundery weather was dealt with, somehow everyone pulled together to get the 33.3km done, and the event finished once again in stunning conditions on the shores of Montenegro. A fully sold out event had 194 eventual starters, of which 42 didn’t quite complete every stage of what had been probably one of the most challenging so far on the marathon swim day 3 (at least if you exclude the test event in 2022!). Everyone deserved their participation medal though - and a strong contingent also opted for the 22.2 shorter distance and did themselves proud to nail it!
On the female podiums there were Swedes, Brits, French and Germans, and on the mens they came from Germany, Australia, France, Switzerland and Spain! Michael Dieckmann displayed a masterclass in race management striking away from his competitors on the 10.6km marathon swim to once again take both overall win and the skins category, with Benoit Lamour taking first place in wetsuits mens. Asa Nystrom from Bromma club in Stockholm took the female skins prize, with fellow Swede Annika Ericsson (Kraken) in 3rd, with Celia Pointe from France sandwiched in between. In the wetsuit category, it was Sabine Kost, coached by yet another Swedish team Envol who took first place, with Heather Schelhase (GB) in second, and Marie Tissier at her second event in third.
One of the older competitors, and in their first big open water swim of any kind, Lausanne based Italian Stefano Agostini was awarded the Selkie Endurance robe, being the last Finisher in 15 hours and 19 minutes - some 7 hours more swimming time than Michael Dieckmann.
Event Ambassador, adaptive athlete and coach, Sophie Etheridge swam a super event, showing us just how anything is possible - and a great way to follow up on her 29 hour English Channel swim the summer before. Demonstrating the incredible diversity at every event, we also had Magic5’s Ambassador Ivan Puskovitch, fresh from Paris 2024 - he’ll be back as he has unfinished business, not managing to complete the full 33.3 due to a shoulder injury.
Overall after #5, there were just two swimmers (Kamal and Becky) with 4 Finisher droplets to their name, and 9 swimmers with three of them. In 2025, swimmers will be getting their own personalised swim hats with the number of Finisher droplets they’ve attained on…
Searchable age group results (MSO) HERE
Winner Skins: Asa Nystrom (SWE) 9hrs 13m 45s - Michael Dieckmann (GER) 8hrs 11m 15s
Winner wetsuits: Sabine Kost (GER) 9hr 15m 09s - Benoit Lamour (FRA) 8hrs 19m 37s
And below you can replay in full quality data mode all of the #5 swims via our GeoRacing platform, with the support of Insiders.live and Fourth Cape. This is the system we also use for live tracking and safety at all our events (the kayaks and boats are also tracked)