A Mumbai college student, Prabhat Koli (19), who crossed the English Channel when he was 16, has become the first Asian to swim the choppy water from Jersey (an Island in the UK) to France in cold weather recently. The long-distance sea swimmer covered 25km in 6 hours and 54 minutes. He started off from La Coupe Point of Jersey, behind St Catherine’s backwater and touched the shore of St Germain Plage on the Normandy coast of France.
His father Raju Koli, an employee of BARC, said Prabhat is the first Asian to have crossed this sea route. “In 2015, he had completed a round-Jersey Island swim of 66km as part of his attempt to swim seven seas. He was supported by his coach Sally Minty Garavett.”
Jersey Long Distance Swimming Club (JLDSC) organized this swim under the observation of Sally Minty Gravett, of the UK. “As per JLDSC records, Prabhat is the first Asian to have successfully attempted this route,” he added. During the swim, the temperature of water was around 16-170 c. Prabhat had undergone water swimming training at Nanital for a month and Sherwood college swimming pool before embarking on this challenge “It was cold water swim. I had got acclimatized with the weather condition. I had set the target of clocking below 7 hours and managed it. So far, only 13 swimmers have been able to do this in less than 7 hours. Since 1966 only 63 swimmers, including myself, have succeeded in completing the event,” said an ecstatic Prabhat, who is doing second year B Com at Ambedkar College, Chembur.
As part of his seven seas challenge, Prabhat is now training to cross the North Channel in Ireland in first week of August.
