Mihai Holban, Florin Tomos and Cristian Mitrica crossed, on Saturday, with neoprene suits, the Strait of Gibraltar, one of the most difficult areas in the world, covering the distance between Spain and Morocco in 5 hours and one minute, according to the president of the Ice Swimming Romania association, Paul Georgescu.
Thus, the number of Romanians who crossed the strait between Europe and Africa reached seven, only two of them swimming without a neoprene suit, Paul Georgescu and Serban Fratila, agerpres reports.
Mihai Holban from Bucharest, lawyer and swimming coach, is the first Romanian to cross the Bosphorus straits in an organized framework, 2015, Dardanelles, 2019, and Gibraltar, 2023.
Florin Tomos from Cluj, swimming instructor, the initiator of Seven Lakes Romania, in 2019 crossed the Molakai Strait, Hawaii, part of Oceans Seven, and swam 48 kilometers then.
Born in Turnu Magurele, Cristian Mitrica, who currently lives in Bucharest, economist by profession, started swimming at almost 40 years old, after a skiing accident. He was on the boat in 2012 with the first two Romanians who, in a neoprene suit, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, as well as this year when he accompanied Serban Fratila and Paul Georgescu on the same route.
The only Romanian swimmer who completed five of the seven endurance challenges at the international level, Oceans Seven, Paul Georgescu, said that he expects the three swimmers to join him in a new challenge soon. He is due to swim 23 kilometers in Cook Strait, New Zealand, as part of the Oceans Seven project early next year.
"Next year, in February, I will swim the Cook Strait and I hope it will also be Tsugaru, Japan. I tried to cross the latter this year, but there were organizational problems that stretched throughout the swimming season, the initiators of the project is analyzing if they still include this area," Georgescu mentioned.
In 2012, Calin Chiprianov and Nicolae Let were the first Romanians to cross the Strait of Gibraltar in 4 hours and 44 minutes, in a neoprene suit.
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