Watch: ‘The Sea Won’ – Two Ultra-Endurance Athletes Abandon Gruelling Swims While Trying To Break Neil Agius’ Record
Malta might be used to its beloved Olympian superhero Neil Agius breaking swimming records left, right and centre, but setting such high physical standards is anything but easy. And that’s exactly what two ultra-endurance swimmers just helped remind everyone.
Over the course of this week, two extremely talented swimmers – Poland’s Bartłomiej Kubkowski and Switzerland’s Naom Yaron – attempted to break Neil Agius’ world-record 125.7-kilometre swim which he had completed back in June 2021 when he swam from the Italian island of Linosa to Gozo’s Xlendi.
The two swimmers’ challenges were definitely impressive: Kubkowski was set to become the first person to swim across the Baltic Sea, in a 170-kilometre journey which would start in Poland and end Sweden.
Yaron, meanwhile, had 180 kilometres ahead of him, in a swim from Corsica’s Calvi to Monaco.
Unfortunately, both swimmers had to abandon their challenges, posting heartbreaking updates straight from the sea.
“I haven’t been able to eat meals for the last five hours,” Kubkowski wrote earlier this afternoon. “I haven’t been able to eat meals for the last 5 hours. I was throwing up and my stomach was hurting more and more by the hour. I knew that it was already over and the only sensible decision I would be to give up.”
“This time the sea won, but we’ll be back next year,” Yaron said in a post sharing a video of himself crying from the Mediterranean. “For 48 hours of non-stop swimming, I swam despite the currents and headwinds, much stronger than expected. After running nearly 100 km, and in agreement with my team, I decided to stop.”
Meanwhile, with Neil Agius’ record still standing, the next person set to try break his record next month is Agius himself.
Now 38 years old, Agius will be trying to swim a world-record 160-kilometre swim, bringing it all home by swimming around Malta, Gozo and Comino. And considering that whole thing takes just over 100 kilometres, he’ll actually restart the whole swim at one point in his three-day, non-stop challenge.
With less than 25 days to go, Agius is now in the final stages of preparation, embarking on his longest training session yet earlier today.
Do you think Neil will manage to break his own record next month?
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