More than 500 swimmers competed Sunday in the seventh annual Brooklyn Bridge Swim, a 1-kilometer race across the East River from Brooklyn to Manhattan.
Bruce Brockschmidt, 45, of Mount Laurel, N.J., had the fastest time of the day, completing the race in 13 minutes 9 seconds. South African Jill Hanass-Hancock, 39, was the fastest female swimmer with a time of 14 minutes and 59 seconds.
Swimmers entered the water just below the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn Bridge Park and swam under the Brooklyn Bridge, finishing the race in East River Park.
The event was organized by NYC Swim, an organization that promotes swimming in the city's waterways with 11 annual races in the Hudson, East and Harlem Rivers of distances ranging from 1 kilometer to 28.5 miles.
While Sunday's race was a short distance, organizers said swimmers could not take advantage of the currents that run upstream and downstream, making the swim more challenging.
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