The West Bay Club

Swimming Champ Marcos Diaz makes a splash in TCI Posted in News & Updates, Resort Activities & Events, Turks & Caicos Islands

This past weekend, our island of Providenciales was the proud host of the 1^st Eco seaswim- Race for the Conch.

The guest of honor was Marcos Diaz from Dominican Republic, a well known world class long distance swimmer and athlete. Among Marcos’ numerous achievements are: 2005 the World Record for crossing back and forth the Strait of Gibraltar; 2006 1^st place in the longest competition in Bhagirathi River in India (81K); 3 years consecutive champion in the International Crossing of the Toroneos Gulf in Greece; Swimming in the Passage Boca Chica ; Double Swim around the Island of Manhattan NY (97K)

Marcos holds the highest ranking ever by a Dominican swimmer in the world rankings of International Swimming Federation

Marcos achievements do not stop in the water. In 2004 he established the Marcos Diaz Foundation dedicated to help the children with limited economic resources in Dominican Republic and around the world. His goal this year is to ‘connect’ the continents by swimming various straits and passages and use his name and records to attract attention to child mortality and hopefully end poverty by 2015.

West Bay Club was one of the sponsors and the host of the welcome cocktail party for the organizers and participants. After the greetings and a brief introduction by the main organizer, Marco Travel, the microphone was passed to Marcos who thanked everyone for the hospitality and  briefed the audience on his goals and his Foundation work.

The 1-mile sea swim took place the following day and it was great success thanks to the organizers and the participants. Even though it was a much shorter race than Marcos normally participants in, he won.

Marcos and his wife stayed with us at WBC, so we had the opportunity to interact, ask questions and show off the resort not only to them, but also to members of the press from the Caribbean Travel and Life Magazine and other participants.