Jo­di Gomez will be de­fend­ing her ti­tle at the an­nu­al Las Cuevas Bay to Mara­cas Bay 6.5km swim chal­lenge on Sep­tem­ber 9 at 9am. The com­pe­ti­tion will be host­ed by the Trin­i­ty Mas­ters Swim Club and will fea­ture top lo­cal long dis­tance open wa­ter swim­mers such as par­a­lympic swim­mer Shan­ntol Ince. Ince, who will rep­re­sent T&T at the Lon­don Par­a­lympic Games which gets un­der­way on Au­gust 29 in Lon­don, will be Gomez's most threat­en­ing con­tender. Ear­li­er this year, the Gas­par­il­lo Sec­ondary School form five grad­u­ate emerged as the top women's com­peti­tor at the 8th Gas­pa­ree Is­land race. Six­teen-year-old Chelsea Mo­hammed and top triath­lete and open wa­ter vet­er­an swim­mer, Jacque­line Jod­han, are some of the oth­er no­table women swim­mers. The Caribbean long-stand­ing vet­er­an will be hop­ing to con­tin­ue her fine form from her sec­ond place fin­ish at Grena­da's 25th an­nu­al triathlon in May.

Four-time Mara­cas Open Wa­ter Clas­sic win­ner, John Stan­ley Lit­tlepage, and 2011 Clas­sic win­ner, Nicholas Mitchell, will have all eyes on them as the men's main com­peti­tors. Mitchell, 17, was al­so the win­ner of this year's Gas­pa­ree Is­land race. Fel­low teenagers Sachin Sankar, 15, and Ju­lian Kauf­man, 16, are some of the oth­er top mens' com­peti­tors. Sankar and Kauf­man placed sec­ond and third re­spec­tive­ly in the Gas­pa­ree Swim. There will be 15 kayaks and sev­en mo­tor boats as well as the Coast Guard ves­sels to ac­com­pa­ny swim­mers. Swim­mers will start at Las Cuevas beach and go around the North coast to Mara­cas Bay and fin­ish in front of the life guard build­ing. All par­tic­i­pants will be pro­vid­ed with a swim cap and a jer­sey cour­tesy the host club.