Amberg,
September 30, 2008 – For years, swimming long distances
has been a hobby of Christian’s, who works at TraceParts
as a project manager. He has already completed 40 long
distance competitions, of which 20 were in the ocean.
The individual distances that he had previously covered
had amounted to two, five and ten kilometers.
Early this year, he faced an extreme challenge with one
of his swimming partners: traversing the Straits of Gibraltar.
About twenty kilometers of open sea, where the European
and African continents are separated from each other.
Only two Germans had previously mastered this stretch
since 1928.
To adequately prepare for this distance, he scheduled
a weekly training allotment of up to 30 kilometers at
the beginning of the year. Christian therefore completed
more than 600 kilometers in the water during the preparatory
period alone.
 On
July 13, 2008, the date had arrived. Due to the constantly
worsening weather conditions, the start date had to
be set two days earlier than planned.
Setting out in Europe near Gibraltar, Christian and
his swimming partner jumped into the chilly 18 degree
waters accompanied by a guide boat. At that point they
were not sure where they would set foot on African ground,
because this essentially depends on the predominant
currents.
During such an undertaking, a constant self-motivation
is crucial, since the temptation to quit and just hold
on to the accompanying boat continues to grow with the
distance covered. The external circumstances of such
a crossing are also precarious. Warm and cold masses
of water come together in the narrow straits and generate
strong winds. It is also important to keep an eye on
the heavy ship traffic. Additionally, the danger of
coming in contact with various ocean inhabitants is
more than 90%.
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The
fact that nothing is predictable about such an adventurous
project, compared to the training conditions in a swimming
pool or a lake, was shown when his swimming partner
had to quit about halfway into the stretch because the
high waves made him seasick.
The will to persevere by the TraceParts employee was
thus put to a hard test: “From that point on I
was swimming for everyone, for my family, for friends,
for Germany, for TraceParts”, says Christian,
whose strength was diminishing as the water continued
to get colder.
After five hours, 32 minutes and 19.5 swum kilometers,
Christian arrived in one piece but exhausted on the
African coast in Morocco.
His efforts were rewarded by the certificate of the
Gibraltar Swimming Association, which authenticates
that he is one of the few who has mastered this athletic
challenge.
Christian is hereby the third German fellow, second
Bavarian and first Upper Palatinate resident who succeeded
in this incredible athletic achievement.
The entire TraceParts team expresses its warmest congratulations
and is eagerly awaiting the next challenge, the Belt
crossing, a crossing from Germany to Denmark in the
Baltic Sea with a length of 25 km, which is planned
for August 2009.
Click on the image to start the
slideshow:
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