“Olympian swimmers Eamon Sullivan, Jim Piper, Travis Nederpelt and Adam Lucas will join Australian champions Mark Riley and Bobby Jovanovich to make up a ‘Dream Team’ in the 20km race category,” Port to Pub organising committee member Ceinwen Roberts said.
The event commemorates the 60 years since swimmer Gerd von Dincklage-Schulenburg swam alone from North Fremantle to Rottnest in 1956.
The new race will allow six-member teams, so each entrant can share a greater spread of the racing during the 20km crossing.
The race has been organised because of the number of entrants missing out on a spot in the annual Rottnest Channel Swim from Cottesloe Beach to Rottnest.
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Les Stewart (80) swam in the first Rottnest Channel Swim, held two months after Mr Dincklage-Schulenburg took the plunge in 1956. Mr Stewart will be the potentially oldest person to swim the Rottnest Channel when he competes in six-member team in the first Port to Pub.
“His swimming colleague in 1956 was that race’s winner, Trevor Seaborn, who will sound the starting horn at the Port to Pub in what will be the most authentic tribute to the swim’s history,” Ms Roberts said.