The 'other' Gibraltar Assn.
TheSwimmingBrick
Auckland New ZealandMember
Greetings family.
Having an 'interesting' ( don't want to burn any bridges here ) time attempting to deal with acneg for a Gibraltar solo date. Even trying to get an available year seems difficult.
I have searched this wonderful forum and see talk of another competitor association but obviously with a warning about legitimacy of their ability to provide a swim.
The thread I refer to is here https://forum.marathonswimmers.org/discussion/1600/
And the company with the warning here http://gibraltarswimming.com
My question is, is there anything I'm missing here as to my application. How long has it taken others to get a date, and, has anyone tried this other crowd and if so are they, and the swim legit.
Sorry if I've missed a thread explaining all this and my sincere thanks in advance for any help.
Comments
The association's official site: http://www.acneg.com
Hey, @TheSwimmingBrick.
I applied over two years out for a spot. This was May 2016 for an Aug 2018 spot, specifically week of 19-25 Aug. Five days later ACNEG wrote me that they got my email and had me down on a waiting list. Then a long correspondence btwn me and Rafael ensued. He told me that despite me applying over two years prior,
"...many swimmers (from many years ago) whom haven’t slot each year like apply for the next, so that, we have accumulated many crosses every year. Anyway we’ll try to find a slot for you on 2018."
Because of that, I was unsure if I had a slot or not.
In Oct 2016 I noticed on the ACNEG website that they were requesting that everyone who applied for a spot email them, forwarding all previous correspondence btwn the swimmer and ACNEG. I got an email back the next day that I'm still on the list for Aug 2018.
In Jan 2017 I emailed ACNEG to ask to switch to any week in July 2018. No response from ACNEG.
In late March 2018 I got caught up in the Russia-USA politics and would have to leave Moscow early April. Coincidentally, ACNEG wrote me around this same time asking me to confirm my August 2018 crossing (no mention of July). I wrote them back to let them know I could no longer do the swim.
So, all in all good communication.
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
Regarding Gibraltar Swimming Ass., I wrote a couple of comments here https://forum.marathonswimmers.org/discussion/comment/28844#Comment_28844
I check every now and then their social media. IG is often updated; in one of their latest post (13th February) they state "Already preparing the season for crossings! David Meca and the team are already in the Strait. Very soon we'll contact those who are in the waiting list for this spring"
I'm sure that as soon as they achieve any successful crossing, their Twitter & IG will explode. If they haven't, so far, I can only imagine 3 reasons:
-1 They don't really have any candidate (which I doubt, knowing that so many people are interested)
-2 They don't have the means to provide the attempts
-3 Spanish Authorities don't give them permits
Nbr. 2 seems the most probable. But keep in mind that, sadly, Spain is one of Europe's most corrupt countries, therefore you can't disregard that Authorities might be giving them a hard time to get permits.
For context, according to ACNEG's website, they have been crossing, this year, since 3rd April.
dieciseisgrados.com/
Thanks guys, our experiences seem aligned......
Sad they aren't allowed some competition. I speculate a different turn around time if there was.
I am not agree with this. Nowadays in Spain if you acomplish with the requeriments the autorities give you the permissions as occurs in all the sport events all the year long. Maybe this association would not have all the means that they promised. And it is strange that they use a internet address very similar to the other association: that leads to mistake.