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Abigail Holt swam 5.7 km (3.5 miles) in 1 hour 13 mins from Europe to Asia!
It is said that Leander swam the Hellespont (Dardanelles) to visit his lover, Hero (unusual name for a girl!), for a night of passion, before swimming back again! This is now the route of the annual Turkish Victory Day swimming race.
On Monday 30 August 2010 Abigail was among 500 international swimmers (including a Turkish Olympic swimmer and at least one Channel swimmer) who registered for this year's race. The conditions were very windy and the seas very rough (the 2 boats promised to mark the route did not materialise...) but 460 swimmers set off from the European side of the Dardanelles Straites from a sleepy fishing village called Eceabat on the Gallipoli Peninsula, (after a ferry ride wearing only swimming costumes, rubber hats, sun lotion, freebie hotel slippers and clutching goggles...!)
Abigail was among 280 of those who completed the race within the 90 minute time limit, ending up at the Turkish Naval Base at Canakkale on the Asian side. The sea was so rough that she could not do her usual preferred stroke, frontcrawl, and had to do breaststroke all the way instead, so as to be able to see and navigate (at least when she was on top of a wave) against the very strong currents as the Bosphorus empties on its final stage from the Black Sea via the Sea of Marmara into the Aegean.
However, at least she did not have to swim back, as per Leander and she missed the dreaded jellyfish.
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