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Neil Agius swim around Malta, Gozo and Comino.
curly
Issaquah, WASenior Member
I just ran across this little item. Sounds like quite a swim. Article says it's one for the record books. I'm curious what exactly the record is. There have been longer swims both in distance and duration. Anyone able to shed some light on this? Not trying to disparage anyone here because it's still a major league swim and it appears he stuck to the rules. Just curious if there are different bodies keeping different records. (A record for you, a record for you, everybody gets a record....)
https://timesofmalta.com/article/neil-agius-world-record-160km-malta-gozo-comino-swim.1098414
Comments
Which swims?
The record is Longest Ocean Swim (nonstop, unassisted, current neutral) - see https://longswims.com/longest-swims
MSF defined/established this category in 2014 with Chloe McCardel's Exuma Sound swim (124.4km) - https://marathonswimmers.org/swims/2014/chloe-mccardel-eleuthera-bahamas
Chloe's record was subsequently broken by Neil Agius (125.7km in 2021) - https://marathonswimmers.org/swims/2021/agius-linosa-gozo
And now Neil apparently swam even further. The article you linked to gets a number of facts wrong, but pending ratification, this does appear to be a new record for the Longest Ocean Swim category.
oof, there are indeed a lot of facts wrong in that article!
Thanks for the clarifications. As I read the article it just sounded like there wasn't a really solid foundation of facts. I found it on reddit and the commentary there was terribly uniformed. So I started wondering if anything was accurate or if this was one of those off-the-wall things. Glad to hear he is legit. It still sounds like an incredible swim. There is a video of him finishing and he is just cooked.
BTW, I noticed he has a tattoo of Olympic rings. Was he a former Olympic swimmer? I know I could google, but I'm lazy....
He swam in the Olympics, representing Malta. 400 Free, I believe
He swam for Malta in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. I might add that Neil this summer organized a 37km swim around Gozo (one of the 3 islands of Malta), and hopefully he will do so again next year, so there you have a nice long swim, https://www.oceanfestival.mt/
Here is an MSF news post I wrote about one swimmer (Kamilla Boross) who took part in the Ocean Festival, around Gozo swim. It really did seem like a beautiful swim from the way she described it. Great choice for anyone who likes breathtaking cliff views, clear-not-cold water and what sounds like a friendly, supportive culture of swimmers. https://news.marathonswimmers.org/2024/09/kamilla-boross-gratitude-around-gozo/