CAPRI-NAPOLI
MARATHON
L’evento,
nato nel 1949 dall’idea di due appassionati (Aldo Fioravanti e Cesare
Alfieri), è oggi una tappa del “World Grand Prix FINA”. Una traversata di 36km
che ha come campo di gara il meraviglioso Golfo di Napoli.
Si
parte mercoledì 1 luglio per il primo step che durerà fino a domenica 5 luglio.
Sabato 4 luglio ci sarà la Capri/Napoli non competitiva, mentre domenica 6
settembre la gara ufficiale FINA.
History
Capri-Naples
In 1949 Aldo
Fioravanti and Cesare Alfieri, two passionate swimmers, were the first
ones to cover the distance from Naples to Capri island in around 12 hours, at
an average of 30 strokes per minute.
Capri-Napoli is one of the more fascinating and
difficult competition, until 1992 awarding long distance world title, now the
crossing swimming race Capri-Napoli is a “FINA World Grand Prix” leg over a
distance of 36 km as the crow file distance.
The Gulf of Naples has always been the suggestive
“playing field” of this contest starting normally from Marina Grande ( Capri )
and finishing to the sea-front in Naples assigning the World title until
1992.
For the winners the race lasts about 6 hours and 15
minutes and 6 hours and 45 minutes, according to sea and weather conditions.
The fascination of the sea marathons, much more tiring
than the earth ones, just lies in the incredible effort going on for several
hours in unnatural conditions.
On 2006 the open water swimming became an Olympic
discipline thanks to a IOC decision and a 10 km race ( male and famale ) has
taken place during the Olympic Games of Beijing 2008 for the first time.
Since 2007, considering the goal reached, the “FINA
World Series” calendar is now made by 2 different circuits:
“FINA WORLD GRAND PRIX”, which includes the
competitions of 15 km and over. This circuit is the one including all the
traditional long marathons.
“FINA WORLD CUP” which includes only the 10 Km
competitions.
The 2015 “FINA World Series”calendar consists
of 15 events: 5 races part of the “FINA WORLD GRAND PRIX” and 10 races
part of the “FINA WORLD CUP”.
Therefore the “Maratona del Golfo Capri-Napoli” is an
official leg of 2015 FINA WORLD GRAND PRIX and it will take place on September,
6th and it will be the last race of the season awarding the Grand Prix title.
The event is promoted by “Eventualmente – Eventi e
Comunicazione” .
The 2015 edition of the race from Capri to Naples will
be the 50th one in 62 years of this famous crossing swimming race, the 13th one
of the recent past (from 2003, after a break of 10 years ).
Before the long break of 1992 there have been 37
editions in 39 years: the first one dates back to August, 1st on 1954 and the
last one to July 5th on 1992 ( It was not played on 1984 and on 1985 ).
This event had for many years the President of Italian
Republic’s high sponsorship. It has always been organized and promoted by the
newspaper “Il Mattino“, above all thanks to the passion and the commitment of
the journalists Alberto Barone and Lello Barbuto, promoters of the race.
Each edition has always had the sponsorship of the
Local Government Institutions: Regione Campania, Comune di Napoli, Città
di Capri and Azienda di Cura e Soggiorno di Capri.
For many years the swimming marathon Capri-Napoli has
been part of a bigger event dating back to the “50s’” called “La Settimana
Motonautica” , which used to be an initiative dedicated not just to the
swimming marathon, but also to the offshore, the saling and to the water sky
contests, looking like a bit water sports festival.
This event is surely one of the most celebrated and
known in its field. After years of more and more spectacular and fascinating
sea challenges, the event has enlarged its horizons and has gone beyond the
Italian borders, becoming famous and well-known all over the world.
Just for this reason the Long Distance Swimming
International Federation chase the famous race as unique trial to award of the
long distance world champion (male and female ) title, keeping such praxis up
till the “80′s”.
Then on 1991 FINA included the Open Water Swimming
discipline among its ones. Therefore since that year the world championship
title is awarded by:
World Cup/Grand Prix: the competition consists of
different legs in the five continents;
World Championships: the competition consists of 3
specific distance challenges ( 5 km, 10 km and 25 km ) taking place in the same
venue every 2 years ( during the FINA world Championships ).
On 1993/94 FINA promoted the first “World Cup” which
included 8 legs with distances from 26 Km ( Brazil: Tapes ) to the 88 km
(Argentina: Hernandarias-Paranà ).
On 1991
FINA included the open water swimming discipline in the Swimming World
Championships with a race over a distance of 25 km only. Then on 1998 FINA
added to that one the 5 Km race. At the end of 2000 FINA added the 10 km race
as well. This race is the one added in the Olympic Program on 2006 by I.O.C.
and it took place for the first time in Beijing 2008.
The
success of this event is clear looking at in its numbers ( updated on 2014 ):
572
swimmers ( 437 men and 135 women ), with 1.301 swimmers at the start in 49 past
events belonging to 55 nations and 5 continents.
The
ones who know the event surely remember the so-called “Nile’s crocodiles” the
famous Egyptian athletes who “invented” this kind of contest and first left
their mark on the event achieving the first win ( Marey
Hassan ). They grabbed the female wins record ( 9 ). The Egyptians
were always clashed by the “Argentinian Caymans”, holding the male wins record
( 10 ) and the singles presence record, which belongs to Claudio Plit, 15
times at the start ( 13 + 2 recent past editions ).
An Italian swimmer, the Neapolitan Giulio Travaglio,
holds the singles win record, in fact he arrived at the first place for 5
times, well representing the long Italian tradition concerning this discipline.
Finally, the records: Vitalij Khudyakov (KAZ ) holds
the record ( 6h 11′ e 27″ ) set in 2014. Among the women the time record
belongs to the Brazialian Ana Marcela Cunha ( 6h 24′ 47″ ) also set in 2014,
the year of the record.
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