New Marathon Swim in Varna, Bulgaria

The new professional marathon swim in Varna Bay, Bulgaria has created a new website: see here for its August 8th event.

The FINA 10KM Marathon Swimming World Cup is one of the World's Top 100 Open Water Swims (listed as #36).


Home country of superstar professional, English Channel and Olympic swimmer Petar Stoychev, Varna is going to put on a great open water show this August. Varna is a seaside resort city on the Black Sea considered to be the 'Sea Capital of Bulgaria'. For nearly 70 years, Varna has hosted the Galata-Varna 4.4K Swimming Marathon.

Petar has won the Galata-Varna 4.4K Swimming Marathon numerous times and will be one of the favorites of the Varna 10K professional marathon race.

August 8th is the date when Bulgaria annually celebrates its Black Sea Navy Day. The start and finish of both races is held in front of Varna's main beach where thousands cheer on the swimmers. With an average water temperature of 23°C (74°F) and air temperature of 28°C (82°F), the conditions are expected to be nearly ideal for amateurs and on the warm side for the pros who will be competing for US$20,000 in prize money.

As Petar said, "Open water swimming has given me a great opportunity to travel the world. As a young child in school studying geography and looking at maps of the world, I never dreamed I could one day go to Canada, Asia and South America to swim. It is a great experience."