A new swimming world record was set by a Pune-based 17-year-old, Sampanna Ramesh Shelar. He has set the record by double crossing the Bangla Channel yesterday.
Shelar, is the first person to swim to and fro from Saint Martin’s Island Jetty to Teknaf in Bangladesh also known as the Bangla Channel.
He started swimming across the Bangla Channel at 5 am and completed the journey of 32.2 kilometers in 9 hours and 10 minutes.
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“It is my first international solo ocean event. I give the entire credit to my coach Jitendra Khasnin. Two main problems that I faced were the fish and high tides. When I was close to ending my swim high tides started coming and they blocked my way for a long time”, Shelar added.
Shelar’s coach, Jitendra Khasnin also expressed his happiness on the achievement of his student who he has been training for four years since Shelar was 13-years-old.
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“I have been training Shelar since he was 13. He started with 40 km/hour in Gujarat where he set a national record. When preparing for the Bangla competition we decided to go for a world record as we realized that he was more capable than the other contestants. It is easy to go into the sea but difficult to return due to high tides.”
Ramesh Shelar has been practicing at Shark Aquatic Club, Pune and this is his first international record.
Next, he plans to participate in the upcoming 81 km swimming competition to be held in Bhagirathi River.