Grand Prix de la CTM

The Grand Prix de la CTM is an open water swimming race held in the sea off the coast of Martinique, connecting the communities of Saint-Pierre and Le Carbet. Swimmers gather, tracing the shoreline between two settlements. The event brings together competitors across varied distances in a marine setting. The competition course offers distances of 500 meters, 1,000 meters, and 5,000 meters, alongside an established 3-kilometer stretch. The 3-kilometer route gets underway in front of the Le Carbet gendarmerie, while the 1-kilometer course departs from the quay opposite a local seaside restaurant. Looking toward the shore, the route hugs the coast as swimmers make their way to Le Carbet. Swimmers of all generations share the waters across specialized age divisions.

The 500-meter sprints welcome children aged 6 to 10 as well as Masters swimmers aged 25 to 70. The 1-kilometer race features categories for youths and young adults aged 11 to 24 alongside Masters up to 70 years old. For the 5-kilometer marathon, competitors aged 13 to 24 take to the water, where the 2024 edition served as an official qualifying event for the Carifta Games under the banner of Prix de la CTM - Kalif Mer Carifta 2024. The race draws swimmers to Martinique’s shores in the heart of winter. The beaches of Saint-Pierre and Le Carbet hosted a lively relay and a series of open races marked by a warm and festive atmosphere. Alongside the elite competition, participants of all ages enjoyed shorter distances purely for the pleasure of swimming without timing chips or pressure.

Gray sand, deep water and the 2023 edition

Le Carbet has gray-sand beaches facing the Caribbean Sea, shaded by many coconut palms. The roadstead of Saint-Pierre is deep and exposed only to winds from the west. Ten years of observations put the average January sea temperature around Martinique between 27°C (81 °F) at La Trinité and 27.2°C (81 °F) at Fort-de-France. The 2023 Grand Prix de la CTM and the Relais du Volcan brought more than 150 swimmers from Martinique's clubs to the Coin beach at Le Carbet. That year swimmers of France's next-generation national squad, who were preparing for the 2024 Olympic Games, also took part. The January 2023 season opener in Saint-Pierre also brought together relay teams of four people, each required to include a woman.

The Bay of Saint-Pierre: the naval battle of 1667

About three kilometres from the race course, the French fleet gathered in July 1667 during the Battle of Martinique, taking position beneath the cannon batteries of Fort Saint Pierre and two defensive redoubts. The conflict turned catastrophic on 6 July 1667, when an English fireship crashed into the French flagship Lys Couronée and set it ablaze. The flames jumped quickly to the Saint Jean and the Lion d’Or, leaving only two or three French vessels afloat out of twenty-five ships that entered the bay.

The 1902 eruption: the Roraïma wreck and the cliffs of Le Carbet

Three days later, on 8 May 1902, a searing pyroclastic cloud tore across the bay, destroying the Canadian cargo liner Roraïma at anchor. Today, the sunken wreckage of the Roraïma rests on the offshore seabed, just off the coast of Saint-Pierre. In the midst of the destruction, the surrounding sea also offered salvation. Ten-year-old Havivra Da Ifrile survived the deadly cloud by rowing a small boat across the water into the shelter of a coastal sea cave. While Saint-Pierre was devastated by the blast, the finish line at Le Carbet remained safe from harm. A towering headland south of Saint-Pierre acted as a natural shield, intercepting the pyroclastic flow and sparing the seaside community of Le Carbet.

Mount Pelée slopes and the coastal sanctuary of Le Carbet

Mount Pelée and its adjoining seaside slopes encompass a protected Important Bird Area spanning 9,262 hectares that stretches down to the sea on its north-western side. The deep sea off this coast also shelters memories from the Second World War. About nine kilometres south of the race venue, off Fort-de-France, the Caribbean waters conceal the wreck of the SS Presidente Trujillo. Torpedoed by the German submarine U-156 on 21 May 1942, the vessel sank in just four minutes at coordinates 14°38′N 61°11′W. Today, gliding through the warm Caribbean swells from Saint-Pierre to Le Carbet, swimmers move across deep blue waters where dramatic natural grandeur and maritime memory meet every stroke.