Updated Feb. 16
KWAZULU-NATAL, South Africa, February 14. IN a situation that is eerily similar to Fran Crippen's death last year at a FINA Open Water Swimming event, Nick Mellet, 45, has been found dead four days after first competing in this weekend's Midmar Mile according to local reports.
Information had surfaced from the open water event that Mellet was deemed missing after his transponder did not register at the finish line.
"I can confirm that the body has been found. I don't know how it was recovered. You will have to speak to the guy who found the body," Race Director Wayne Riddin told iafrica.com. "Now we will have to be patient to allow the investigation into the real cause of his death to take place."
While the Midmar Mile would not initially identify the missing person, further reports identified the missing swimmer at Nick Mellet.
Riddin said that he suspected the man had "something like a heart attack," and that Navy and police diving units had yet to find the man.
"We have the best of any search and rescue or recovery at the moment with the South African Navy and the South African Police," Riddin said.
The search is still on for Mellet, who is now believed to have drowned. No body has been found in a search now three days old.
"The problem is that no one saw anything or reported seeing a man struggling during the race," Jack Haskins of the Pietermaritzburg Dog Unit told News24. "And the dam is very big and the water levels are high so it is very challenging for us to locate the whereabouts of the body."