By SUSAN LULGJURAJ Staff Writer, (609) 272-7187

ATLANTIC CITY - Petar Stoychev has traveled the world to collect wins in open water swimming. Just this year alone, the FINA Marathon Swimming World Cup leader won in Argentina, Serbia and Italy.

But there's been once place where he hadn't been able to win, and that was Atlantic City.

He vowed to change that Saturday in the 40th annual Atlantic City Around the Island Marathon Swim, a 221/2-mile race around Absecon Island.

The rough surf in the Atlantic Ocean wasn't going to stop him and in Stoychev's fifth attempt, he won the event in 7 hours, 24 minutes, 12 seconds. He even celebrated by changing his stroke to butterfly for the final few yards.

Stoychev, 28, finished ahead of Atlantic City Beach Patrol member John Kenny (7:26.23) and Brendan Capell of Australia (7:31.06).

"I won other places in the world, but I kept missing this victory," said Stoychev, who finished third last year and second the year before. "I'm happy to finally win here"

Britta Kamrau, 26, of Australia won the women's race in 7:35.41, which was good for fifth overall. This is the second victory for her in eight years; she also won in 2001. Ivanka Moralieva of Bulgaria came in second (7:53.35) and the United States' Erica Rose took third (7:58.14).

"I like that it's very different with the ocean and then the bays with different channels," Kamrau said. "It's a very exciting course, but it was very tough out there today."

The ocean portion of the race, which is first, took longer than normal. Stoychev, who has been in the race four times before, said it took at least a half an hour longer this year because of the high chop. It even took three swimmers out of the race because they were too tired to finish.

The rowboats had a difficult time staying with the swimmers. Many of the athletes went ahead of their boats, which happened to most while going around the Longport jetty.

"I would say there were good three- to five-foot swells out there," said Alex Garassi, 19, of Brigantine, one of the rowers for Stoychev. "It was very, very rough. There was a rip in the Southern wind. It was so hard.

"If I knew this guy didn't train as hard as he did for the race I would have quit," he joked.

The only person who lucked out was Kenny because he knows the area so well.

"It was a little choppy. You had to fight the wind a lot," he said. "It was tough to stay close to the boat. The stern kept bouncing up and down. If I got too close it would have banged me right in the head."

Kenny was in third place for much of the race and started gaining on Australia's Brendan Capell once he hit the bay where the current was easier to catch.

Kenny, whose father, John, followed him during the race on his bike around Absecon Island, passed Capell right after the Dorset Avenue Bridge in Ventnor.

Capell, who has never swam in this race before, was tired after the ocean portion, but kept on swimming.

"It was pretty tough out there," he said. "It took a lot of energy out of me."

Kenny, 24, had a bit of a scare after the race. He came out of the water feeling chilly. That's never happened to him the previous four times he competed.

His body temperature fell to 90-degrees Fahrenheit, but the paramedics were quickly on hand to warm him and Kenny didn't require a trip to the hospital.

"The bay was really warm and as soon as I hit the open water it dropped like 10 degrees," he said. "It kind of surprised me and it made me chilly."

To e-mail Susan Lulgjuraj at The Press:

SLulgjuraj@pressofac.com