Opdycke Wins Manhattan Island Marathon Swim

NEW YORK, June 24. RENDY Opdycke, a 22-year-old lifeguard originally from Mercer Island, Washington and currently residing in LaJolla, California, was the winner of the 24th annual Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. Her time for the 28.5-mile swim was 7:27:26. This was her second successful completion of the MIMS. She won the women's division, placing second overall, in 2004.

She received the Gallagher Cup, named for the event's founder, Drury Gallagher. Opdycke got out to a quick lead, putting a quarter-mile between herself and the second through fifth-place swimmers – Dennis Crean, David Blanke, Michelle Deasy and Daniel Robinson. She extended that lead approaching the halfway mark, passing through Spuyten Duyvil and entering the Hudson River, heading toward the George Washington Bridge.

She and the rest of the field were briefly pulled from the water at 12:05 p.m. for 30 minutes and waited for severe weather to pass. In second place overall, first in the men's division, was Robinson, 48, a project manager from Seattle, Washington, with a time of 7:49:27. The race began at 6:53 a.m. from the South Cove in Battery Park City with 22 solo swimmers, 11 open and five corporate relay teams. They represented nine U.S. states and the United Kingdom. There were 15 male and seven female individual swimmers.

The swimmers took a counterclockwise, tide-assisted route around the southern tip of Manhattan at Battery Park, going up the East River, through the Harlem River to the northern tip of Manhattan, and down the Hudson River back to the South Cove. MIMS is sponsored by the Manhattan Island Foundation (MIF), the authority on open-water swimming in New York, in conjunction with New York Water Taxi, Hudson River Park Trust, Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and financial services firms CSFB and UBS.

Top finishers
Rendy Opdycke (7:27:26)
Daniel Robinson (7:49:27)
Dennis Crean (7:50:26)
Michelle Deasy (7:52:27)
David Blanke (7:57:46)

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