Top long dis­tance swim­mer John Stan­ley Lit­tlepage, four-time win­ner of Cross Har­bour events from 2003-2006, will to­day com­pete in the longest race on the an­nu­al swim cal­en­dar, the Las Cuevas Bay to Mara­cas Bay chal­lenge swim, a dis­tance of 6,500 me­tres. This is the fourth an­nu­al chal­lenge swim from Las Cuevas to Mara­cas, put on by the Trin­i­ty Mas­ters Swim Club. Man­age­ment of the club has em­ployed some 15 kayaks and five mo­tor boats in ad­di­tion to two Coast Guard ves­sels, to ac­com­pa­ny the swim­mers around the North Coast, be­fore en­ter­ing in­to Mara­cas Bay to fin­ish on the beach in front of the yel­low life­guard build­ing.

Last year's over­all win­ner of this event, 39-year-old Alex Smailes and the women's win­ner Jo­di Gomez will al­so par­tic­i­pate in this year's chal­lenge swim. In the field of swim­mers is win­ner of the Mara­cas Bay Open Wa­ter Clas­sic 2012 (2,650me­ters) 17-yr-old Nicholas Mitchell, who al­so won the Kia around Gas­pa­ree Open Wa­ter Swim (5,600m) in March 2012. Among the oth­er swim­mers is the women's win­ner of the Mara­cas Open Wa­ter Clas­sic 2011 (5,600m) 16 year old Theana Hay. Some 40 peo­ple have al­ready sub­mit­ted en­tries and the Sports Com­pa­ny of T&T has as­sist­ed in this great chal­lenge swim. Ac­cord­ing to Gor­don Bor­de, pres­i­dent of the Trin­i­ty Mas­ters Swim Club, open wa­ter swim­ming is be­com­ing more pop­u­lar an­nu­al­ly with a greater num­ber of en­trants.