Search operations are continuing by the Turkish maritime police and coast guard in Istanbul to try to locate a Russian citizen missing during the 37th edition of the Transcontinental Bosphorus Swimming Race, held over the weekend in the Turkish metropolis with the participation of thousands of swimmers from all over the world.
The event, organised by the Turkish National Olympic Committee, was held on Sunday with more than 2,800 swimmers from 81 countries swimming the 6.5-kilometre course from Kanlıca on the Asian side of Istanbul to Kuruçeşme on the European coast. Special safety measures were taken for the race, such as the closure of the Bosphorus and the presence of rescue boats along the course; but as the race organisers point out, the course presents “challenging” conditions due to the strong currents in the strait, so “experience of swimming in all sea conditions is essential”.
According to Turkish newspapers such as Hürriyet, organisers found after the race was over that one of the participants, 29-year-old professional swimmer Nikolai Andreevich Svechnikov from Russia, had not reached his destination. After examining security cameras and chip wristband tracking systems, it was determined that Svechnikov had indeed participated in the competition and had departed from the starting point, but never made it out of the water at the destination point.
After notifying the authorities of the incident, the Istanbul Police Department and the Coast Guard Regional Command for the Marmara and Straits launched an extensive search and rescue operation, involving dozens of boats and specialised divers, as part of an operation that has been deployed along the waters of the Bosphorus Strait that separates Asia from Europe.
So far, however, the search operation has been unsuccessful. According to Turkish media reports, Svechnikov arrived in Istanbul a day before the competition and stayed in a hotel in the Beyoğlu district. The Turkish National Olympic Committee has expressed regret over the disappearance of the Russian citizen, despite the fact that – as they underlined – more than a hundred boats and specialised sea rescue teams were deployed during the race as part of the security measures. The prosecutor’s office has launched an ex oficio investigation, and so far it is not ruled out the possibility that the missing Russian swimmer simply decided to exit the water at a different point and throw away the tracking bracelet.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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