Kicking Off The 2009 New York City Season

It is going to be an incredible year around New York City. The NYC Swim season started to great fanfare with its first race: the 1.3-mile Great Hudson River Swim in 15.5°C (60°F) water won by Jeff Jotz of Rahway, New Jersey in 27 minutes 17 seconds

The New York Daily News covered the Great Hudson River Swim on three consecutive days, including the race photo shown on left (photo by Watts).

With such signature events such as the 28.5-mile Manhattan Island Marathon Swim coming in early June and the new professional 1-mile Pagganck Mile and the greatly anticipated NYC Pro Swim - one of the FINA 10KM Marathon Swimming World Cup events - in September, there will be a lot more open water swimming news coming from the waters around New York City this year.

"It's a different way to see the city," Columbia University swim coach Abby Brethauer.

It certainly is.