BRAZIL: Slovenian man becomes first person to swim entire Amazon River

Slovenian Martin Strel, after braving crocodiles, piranhas, disease and the threat of an imminent heart attack, on Sunday (April 08) completed a record-setting 66-day, 3,274-mile (5,268 km) swim down the Amazon River and was taken to a hospital. Hundreds of people were on hand in the Brazilian colonial city of Belem as an exhausted Strel, 52, made his final stroke, and was pulled from the water. "Fantastic, he's a hero, a hero, an example," said Alessandro Veloso, one of Strel's supporters. "This is a great incentive for sports, for its social aspect. So I think it's brilliant who supports such a sport," said Tereza Sanchez. On Saturday (April 7), Strel had officially set a Guinness Book of World Records mark when he hit the 3,274-mile point, the swimmer's support team said on his Web site www.amazonswim.com. On Sunday he was back in the water again, riding the early morning tide back upriver 6 miles to end the marathon Amazon swim in Belem at about 11:30 a.m. (1430 GMT). It was the most challenging of Strel's big-river swims. He has previously swum 2,488 miles (4,004 km) of China's Yangtze in 2004, 2,360 miles (3,798 km) of the U.S. Mississippi in 2002 and 1,867 miles (3,004 km) of Europe's Danube in 2000. After arriving in Belem, Strel was placed in an ambulance and medics worked to stabilize his blood pressure, which was at near-heart attack levels, his support team said on the Web site. "Good morning Belem, thank you Belem," said an exhausted Strel. Strel has been suffering from nausea, diarrhoea, dangerously high blood pressure, sunstroke, dizziness and delirium. Due to his deteriorating health, Strel had been swimming six hours and then resting for six hours in his final leg down the world's most voluminous and second longest river. On Friday (April 6), Strel had to be hauled from the water by his son Borut and others and had difficulty standing. His doctor ordered him not to swim but Strel, obsessed with reaching Belem, insisted on swimming the final few miles at night to avoid the blistering sun. "I've had enough. I just want to finish and go home," he said on his Web site. Nicknamed "fish man," Strel started his latest big-river swim on Feb. 1 at the Peruvian jungle town of Atalaya, where buckets of animal blood had to be poured into the river to distract piranha from making a quick meal of the swimmer. Strel formally finished his marathon swim down the Amazon four days ahead of schedule on Saturday. In the last leg of his journey, Strel said the ocean tides coming up river were driving him backward at times. Along the trip, Strel and his team had several near misses with pirate attacks and often had to steer toward swift flowing currents to avoid being set upon by piranha. This resulted in Strel being swept away in a giant whirlpool once and separated from his team and boat another time. The team was constantly at risk of parasites and disease in the Amazon such as malaria and yellow fever.

ITN Source | April 13, 2007

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