Swimming their way to fame

'The Swim of the Century' has attempted to set a Guinness World Record for the longest open water relay swim by completing 1,000 km in the Arabian Sea from the Gateway of India Mumbai to Tannirbhavi Beach, Mangaluru via Goa on Thursday.
The Sea Hawks led by Wing Commander Paramvir Singh, in alliance with IDBI Bank, embarked on the expedition on November 26 this year as a tribute to the martyrs and victims of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
Sea Hawks have broken two world records - the longest six-person open water swim which was set by America's Night Trains (505 km) and the longest open water relay swim by 200 swimmers covering 684.75 km in 2009. In the process, they broke their previous year's record of 433.11 km.
KP Nair, DMD, IDBI Bank, said, "The new record is a tribute to those martyrs who lost their lives guarding ours and to those heros who showed bravery in the face of danger."
The team has been swimming for 14 days and nights in the open sea along the Indian coast from the Gateway of India to Mangaluru, starting on Nov 26, at 6.20 pm and ending at 4.00 pm on Thursday.
The Sea Hawks team comprises Indian Air Force (IAF) wing commander Paramvir Singh, 41, Sgt. (retd) G Narhari, 41, Air Warrior (IAF) Vicky Tokas, 26, Mumbai Police's assistant police inspector Srikant Palande, 33, Maharashtra state swimming team's coach Rahul Chiplunkar, 30, and a student Manav Mehta, 16, who has been swimming in open waters from the age of seven. Mehta is a class 11 student.
Speaking to reporters in Mangaluru, Paramvir Singh who led the expedition said, the relay meant one team member swimming for an hour after which another team member would take over for the next hour.
This way, each member got a respite of five hours after their hour's swim. Even if one of them fell sick or gave up, the journey would have been called off by an independent observer from the Swimming Federation of India (SFI) who monitored the expedition.
"The expedition has been challenging and tiring. Most of the team members hold individual records for open swimming. The biggest challenge was to counter the jelly fish at a few stretches. The average distance is about 3.6 kms per hour. The West Coast is undoubtedly far better than the East Coast. We decided to explore the less explored Goa- Mangaluru sea route," he said.
Union minister Piyush Goyal flagged off the expedition in Mumbai that was navigated by Subodh Sule and Shekhar Kale from SFI who will be submitting a report on the expedition to SFI. The team has covered 557 nautical miles. The event was co-sponsored by the Taj Group of Hotels.