CT swimmer breaks own record

2006-05-13 08:25

Johannesburg - Lewis Gordon Pugh has endured the freezing temperatures of a Norwegian fjord for 23 minutes and 50 seconds, swimming 1.2km.

In August 2005, the lawyer swam 1km through the Magdelenefjord's 4degC waters in 21 minutes 30 seconds.

Pugh has already set many records - most recently in January, when he became the first person to have swum all five oceans in nothing more than a swimming cap, goggles and a swimming costume.

For his first long-distance swim, at the age of 17, he swam from Robben Island to Cape Town.

Since then he has, among other feats, spent 21 minutes in the frigid waters off Spitzbergen Island in the Arctic Ocean; 30-minutes in the 2decC Southern Ocean; and swum nearly 15km in the shark-infested waters off Sydney, Australia.

In South Africa, he is the first person to have swum around Cape Hangklip, the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas and the first to swim across Saldanha Bay.

- SAPA