Setting The Record (9 Days) Straight

Up to 250 people will take part in the Guinness Book of World Record attempt on September 9th in Camlough Lake in Newry, Northern Ireland to break the existing open water swimming relay record of 480 kilometers (298 miles). The relay members plans to swim 500 kilometers (310 miles), but may go futher if the circumstances (swimmers and conditions) permit.

The Guinness World Record Relay Open Water Swim attempt will be made in a GPS-certified loop course of 750 meters with only one swimmer and a support kayak in the water at one time. When one swimmer completes his or her distance, there is a relay exchange and the next person starts in a continuous rotation until 500 kilometers – or beyond – is reached.

The Swim will continue non-stop for 24 hours per day with an estimated time duration of 9-10 days depending on the weather conditions. The organizers are counting on the stronger swimmers to swim 3K an hour and slower swimmers to average 1.5K per 40 minutes in order to reach their goal.

Registration for this attempt is open to all Irish and non-Irish swimmers. Local swimmers can register on September 1st and others outside the local area can email their interest to camloughworldrecord@yahoo.co.uk. The closing registration date for the Guinness World Record attempt in the category of Swimming in Relay, Open Water - Greatest Distance is September 5th.

Photo above shows Sean Mallon who participated in a 13:04 English Channel relay earlier this year together with Padraig Mallon and Aoiffe Mc Court who both came up with this world record idea.

Good luck to all.