Kerala swimmer crosses Palk Strait in 14 hours and 25 minutes

Mar 20, 2012 |

Rameswaram (TN)

Tags:

Kerala-based long-distance adventure swimmer S.P. Muraleedharan on Tuesday crossed the Palk Straits from Talaimannar in Sri Lanka to Dhanushkodi in India in 14 hours and 25 minutes.

Though the 38-year-old swimmer from Cherthala in Alappuzha failed in his bid to erase the record of IPS officer Rajiv Trivedi, he became the first Keralite to swim between India and Sri Lanka.

According to the event organisers, Muraleedharan started off Talaimannar at 1.55 AM and reached the finishing point by 4.20 PM.

On completition of the arduous task, Muraleedharan said, "I am glad that I could fulfil my long-cherished dream though I could not create a record as sea was rough with strong waves."

The existing swimming record in Palk Straits is in the name of Rajiv Trivedi, an IPS officer from Hyderabad, who achieved the feat in 12 hours 31 minutes last year.

Swimming legend Mihir Sen was among the Indian who had successfully cross the shark-infested channel in the past.

Muraleedharan had been practising off Rameswaran coast for the last one week to tune his body and mind for the high risk quest.

The venture was supported by the Swimming Federation of India with the backing of various agencies like Maritime Exploration and Research Group and Indian Coast Guard.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/135662" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-a8d20c1d739cd001f739f968b0811674" value="form-a8d20c1d739cd001f739f968b0811674" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="86601797" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>