Bulgarian open water swimming star Petar Stoychev is now the holder of another outstanding achievement He broke the record for the Triple Crown, which includes crossing the English Channel, swimming around Manhattan Island and traversing the Catalina Channel in Southern California.
TheCatalina Channel distance of 32.3 kilometers was covered by the Bulgarian on Monday in 8 hours, 42 minutes and 33 seconds.
He thus completed the Triple Crown with a total time of 22 hours, 8 minutes and 46 seconds, bettering the previous best time by 2 hours and 29 minutes.
It belonged to American Marcia Cleveland, who swam the English Channel in 9 hours and 44 minutes at the age of 30, circumnavigated the island of Manhattan in 5 hours and 57 minutes at the age of 32, and swam the Catalina Strait in 8 hours and 56 minutes. at the age of 41.
The triple crown has been achieved by 332 people since Alison Streeter first established the well-known marathon swimming standard in 1987.
Stoychev, 47, began his journey to the Triple Crown with a 6 hour 57 minute English Channel crossing in 2007 at the age of 30. His second leg was a 6 hour 28 minute swim of 45.9 km around Manhattan Island at the age of 33. He won the Triple Crown while being escorted by dozens of dolphins during the second half of the swim and a blue whale and a humpback whale on their way to Pacific Star Island.
With Don Van Cleve and Roxy Ippolito as spotters, coach Ivan Zlatinov, support team members Elina Siafaris and Steven Munatones, Stoychev not only completed his Triple Crown, but also the fifth leg of the Oceans Seven. These are the seven toughest swimming marathons in the world, administered by the World Open Water Swimming Association (WOWSA), and the organization's rules are to swim in a non-neoprene textile swimsuit.
In addition to the English Channel and Catalina, Stoychev has already overcome the Straits of Gibraltar, Cook in New Zealand and Molokai in Hawaii.
It is left with the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland and the Tsugaru Strait in Japan. | BGNES
