Swimming
Jayant Duble second fastest to cross the Palk Strait
The 18-year-old NCC cadet covered the 29km distance in 9 hours and 20 minutes.
Jayant Duble powers through the waters at Palk Strait
Jayant Jaiprakash Duble, an open water swimmer from Nagpur, has become the second-fastest to swim across the Palk Strait.
The 18-year-old Duble covered the 29km distance between Talaimannar (Sri Lanka) and Arichalmunai (Dhanushkodi, India) in 9 hours and 20 minutes to achieve this feat. The Nagpur-teen broke the record for the second-fastest time of 10 hours and 18 minutes, previously held by Hong Kong's Edie Hu.
Duble started his 9-hour long expedition at 2:25 am on 26th March and completed the feat around 11:45 am the same day.
Jayant J Duble, an 18 yr old Sea Swimmer of 4 #Maharashtra Naval #NCC unit successfully crossed the Palk Strait on 26 Mar 21. He began the swim from Thalaimannar #SriLanka at 2:25AM & successfully completed his expedition at Dhanushkodi #India at 11:45AM. A proud achievement! pic.twitter.com/9wGjGCbOB8
— PRO Defence Mumbai (@DefPROMumbai) March 28, 2021
The world record for the fastest swim across the Palk Strait, however, belongs to M Tulasi Chaitanya from Vijayawada who swam the distance in 8 hours and 25 minutes in the year 2018.
The expedition was organised by the JD Sports Youth Foundation and the National Institute of Swimming (NIS) under the supervision of the Swimming Federation of India (SFI).
Lt. Col Puneet Sushil of the Indian Embassy at Colombo and the Admiral of Sri Lankan navy had earlier flagged off the event, the motive of which was to foster sustained friendship between Sri Lanka and India, promote the Fit India Movement and create awareness towards Drowning Prevention.
Who is Jayant Duble?
A 1st year BPE student of Jyotiba College of Physical Education, Jayant Duble is an NCC Naval Cadet. Although this expedition was his first international event, Duble is certainly not new to such challenging swimming expeditions.
In the past, he has completed the world's longest 81km swimming competition in the Bhagirathi River and stood seventh while clocking a time of 12 hours and 29 minutes. The teenager also recently became the first to swim a new 24 and 27km route at an open water swimming competition held in Goa while registering the best time in the process.
