‘Sea Hawks’, a six-member team of swimmers from different sections of society, paid tribute to the victims and martyrs of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack by swimming a distance of 1,031 km from Mumbai to Mangaluru.

The event, which was flagged off by the Union Energy Minister Piyush Goyal at Gateway of India in Mumbai on November 26, concluded at Tannirbavi beach in Mangaluru on December 8.

After reaching Tannirbavi beach, Wing Commander Paramvir Singh, leader of Sea Hawks, said this is a world record for the longest distance relay in open water swim by an unlimited team.

The previous record for longest distance relay in open water swim by an unlimited team covered 684.75 km in the UK in 2009.

That team had 200 members. The Mumbai-Mangaluru open water relay swim was undertaken by six members and it covered 1,031 km from Mumbai to Mangaluru.

He said Sea Hawks had also broken the world record in longest six-person open water swim, which was held by Night Train Swimmers of the US, who had covered 505 km in 2015.

In this relay event, one team member had to swim for an hour, after which another team member would take over for the next one hour. In this way, each team member would swim for one hour, giving the others respite for five hours, until they reached the destination (Mangaluru).

The six-member team included Wing Commander Paramvir Singh and Vicky Tokas (from Air Force), Sgt G Narahari (ex-Air Force), the 16-year-old Manav Mehta (11th standard student from Mumbai), Shrikant Palande (ASI with Mumbai police), and Rahul Chiplunkar (open water swimming coach).

Subodh Sule guided the swim from Mumbai to Mangaluru, he said. Shekar Kale was the independent observer from the Swimming Federation of India (SFI) for the event.

SFI is the certifying agency for the event.

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