On August 29, Siddhartha Agarwal, at 49 years old, achieved a remarkable milestone by becoming the oldest Indian to swim across the English Channel. Completing the challenging 42-kilometer swim in 15 hours and six minutes, Agarwal’s accomplishment underscores his dedication and perseverance.
Agarwal’s journey to this historic feat began in 2018 when he first swam the Channel as part of an eight-member relay team. That same year, another Bengaluru resident, Srikaanth Viswanathan, set a record as the oldest individual to swim the English Channel solo at the age of 46.
“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,” stated Siddhartha.
During his solo attempt, Agarwal faced significant difficulties, especially during the last 10 kilometers, where he contended with tough conditions and high tides, demonstrating his resilience and determination.
“Until I actually completed the swim, I never believed that I could actually do this. It took me a while for it to sink in. What worked for me was that I trusted my coach, I believed in the process and just focused on what I needed to do that week and that month,” he stated.
“The preparations started with 3km swims, at a pace of 2min 15secs per 100m. The distance would increase, and the pace would reduce as we got closer to the date of the solo swim.”
“(Coach) Satish was a real task master, his rules were simple: If you can’t achieve that day’s target of distance and pace, he would cancel out the enter session as invalid and start a fresh the following day,” stated Siddhartha of the preparations leading up to the solo swim. PTI AM UNG AM 7/21/2024
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