Afoa nominated for international honour

By Ilia L. Likou 22 November 2016, 12:00AM

The Coordinator of Samoa International Events (S.I.E), Afoa Seti Afoa, has been nominated for the World Open Water Swimming Association’s (W.O.W.S.A) Man of the Year Award.

Confirmed by the Association in a statement, Afoa from Samoa is up against other candidates from South Africa, Netherlands, Great Britain and many other bigger countries.

Afoa began the Samoa Swims in 2011 with 22 people in the first year. 

That increased to 110 in 2012, and the rest is history. 

From those beginnings Samoa Events was established with the sole vision of brining new tourists to Samoa. 

Open Water Swimming has leaped to new heights in 2016 with the addition of the Apolima Strait swim. 

In all, Samoa Swims offered to the world 105kms of Open Water Racing in Samoa across several events. This includes:

• Five Islands (May) 35kms

• Apolima Strait (April) 22.3kms

• Pacific Open Water Challenge (Aug) 15kms

• Samoa Swim Series (Aug) 12kms

• Savaii Swims (Aug) 9kms

• Independence Swim & other individual Swims - 7kms

On its website, W.O.W.S.A, has a brief profile about Afoa. It reads:

“For three millennia, the people of Samoa have been entering the Pacific Ocean. Now Seti Afoa is expanding his cultural heritage to a friendly, international, competitive embodiment of his naturally beautiful environment. Afoa is extraordinarily busy man with a grand vision to make Samoa a South Pacific nation that brings local and foreign swimmers together in a number of events in Samoa, supported by the national health service, government and tourism officials, and people of the local villages. 

“For organizing 18 ocean races and swimming holidays from short 400m swims for kids and 22.3 km inter-island marathon challenges, for welcoming and encouraging a mix of local and international participants in a celebration of the sport, for combining local traditions with safe, professionally managed events meeting international standards, Seti Afoa is a worthy nominee for the 2016 World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year.”

Entries for 2017 Samoa Swims are already being received across all Swim Events, as well as other Samoa Events activities such as the Savaii Games, Lalomanu Half Marathon, Warrior Race and the Tour of Samoa.

 

2016 WOWSA Open 

Water Swimming

Man of the Year Nominees

• Roger Finch (South Africa)

• Seti Afoa (Samoa)

• Tomi Stefanovski (Macedonia)

• Edoardo Stochino (Italy)

• Ferry Weertman (Netherlands)

• Nejib Belhedi (Tunisia)

• Ger Kennedy (Ireland)

• Alex Kostich (USA)

• Masayuki Moriya (Japan)

• Colin Hill (Great Britain)

• Ingemar Patiño Macarine (Philippines)

• Lewis Pugh (Great Britain)

•Christof Wandratsch (Germany)

By Ilia L. Likou 22 November 2016, 12:00AM
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