New Delhi: When he started off swimming as a passion, little did he know that after years of hard work, he will earn a precious feat. At 49 years of age, Siddhartha Agarwal from Bengaluru has shattered records after becoming the oldest Indian to swim across the English Channel. The Bengaluru-based swimmer took 15 hours and 6 minutes to swim across the 42km waterway.
His hunger for swimming solo across the English Channel (between England and France) began 6 years back in 2018, when he first swan the waterway as part of an eight-member relay team to do so. In the same year, another swimmer also from Bengaluru, Srikaanth Viswanathan created a record for becoming the oldest to swim the English Channel solo at the age of 46 and that’s when Siddhartha developed the quest.
Didn’t imagine swimming solo across the English Channel: Siddhartha
“In 2017, during a casual swim in the pool, Satish Kumar (founder of Swim Life) presented me with the challenge of trying out open-water swimming, I accepted the idea. Little did I imagine then that I would end up swimming solo across the English Channel,” said Siddhartha.
While for the ace swimmer, the maximum area was waterway didn’t turn out to a big deal but it was the last 10 kilometres that really tested him. The last kilometres posed a big challenge as he had to battle through very high tides and bad conditions to achieve the mark and which he eventually did. After completing the swim, he said that he did not believe to have done actually done it as it was very tough.
He further said that it took a while before the achievement could sink in. Siddhartha also credited his coach Satish for being a real task master and making him believe that he could do it. Further commenting on the preparations, the swimmer revealed that he started with 3km swims, at a pace of 2min 15secs per 100m and the distance would increase and pace would reduce as he got closer to the day of solo swim.
English Channel is narrow arm of the Atlantic Ocean separating the southern coast of England from the northern coast of France.
Bengaluru’s Siddhartha Agarwal has become the oldest Indian at the age of 49 to swim solo across the English Channel. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
