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Romania's Iancu swims Rhine to Basel
Librarian Avram Iancu of Petrosani, who has started swimming the Rhine river in support of Romania's accession to the Schengen area, arrived in Basel, Switzerland, on Monday after covering in eight days 170 kilometres of the more than 1,000 kilometres he had set out to cover, told Agerpres.
According to a social media post, from now on Iancu will swim on a special licence extended by the River Administration, because he enters the navigable channel of the river.
"Now (...) is an important moment of the race. From km 170 you cannot swim in any form without a special licence issued by the River Administration because you enter the navigable channel of the river. It's time for me to thank the Foreign Ministry and all the diplomatic missions again for obtaining my swimming authorisation. So... today the entire crew is excited. We will get to know the big transport ships," reads Iancu's social media post.
In the German city of Konstanz on July 17, Iancu kicked off a swimming race planning on crossing the entire course of the Rhine river in order to show support, through endurance swimming, for Romania's accession to the Schengen area.
He will swim the 1,032 kilometres of the river without a neoprene suit or other supporting elements, just like when he became the first man in the world to cross the Danube river using only the strength of his arms. The duration of the race is estimated at 35 days.
"I wish that the hundreds of thousands of Romanians who return to the country for holidays or vacations will no longer stand in exhausting kilometer-long queues. I wish that Romanian haulers will no longer waste time and significant sums of money at unnecessary borders. Romania is in Europe! Romania is Europe!" Iancu said before leaving.
For the certification of his performance, the swim race will be officially observed by the world open water swimming organisations. The official observer will be swimming trainer Radu Ileana of Alba Iulia, 37, with 14 years of experience in teaching swimming in Deva and Alba Iulia..
Iancu is accompanied by a kayaker as aquatic support, and also by a team that will move on land.
In the summer of 2017, he swam the entire course of the Danube without a wetsuit, over 2,860 kilometres, from its origins to the Black Sea.
