Following a long line of successful notable Australian marathon swimmers, Stephen Junk became the third Australian to achieve the Oceans Seven on September 10th.
The embryologist was inducted as a member of the Australian Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in its Class of 2020/2021. He had to overcome channel failures (including a collapsed lung due to jellyfish stings), heart surgery, a stroke, and a long wait due to the COVID pandemic to become the 26th person in history to become an Oceans Seven swimmer.
Junk is honest with the difficulties and challenges that he has long faced in the sport, “I have always taken open water swimming as a means of achieving the best from myself, both in mind and physical effort, along with it being a bloody great adventure. It has taken me to numerous places, both exotic and dangerous. I have had the fortune of swimming with all forms of wildlife, whether it be dolphins, seals, sharks, turtles, stingrays, jellyfish, blue whales or those annoying seagulls that always seem to follow you when swimming long channels.”
With 14 Rottnest Channel crossings, 2 Manhattan Island Marathon Swims, and various swims ranging from the Strait of Magellan (see below) to the Ederle Swim, the 62-year-old from from Denmark in Western Australia achieved the Oceans Seven on September 10th with a tough 13 hour 17 minute crossing of the 35 km North Channel (see below).
Junk’s Ocean Seven Journey
- July 2005: 14.4 km Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco in 4 hours 1 minutes.
- August 2008: 32.3 km Catalina Channel in 10 hours 29 minutes
- March 2010: 23 km Cook Strait in New Zealand in 8 hours 8 minutes
- 2015: 19.5 km Tsugaru Channel attempt in Japan (DNF)
- 2015: 42 km Molokai Channel attempt in 2015, but became seasick and did not finish
- August 2016: 19.5 km Tsugaru Channel from Honshu to Hokkaido in 11 hours 2 minutes
- June 2016: traveled to the 42 km Molokai Channel, but conditions prevented him from starting
- September 2016: 33.5 km English Channel from England to France in 14 hours 20 minutes
- October 2016: 42 km Molokai Channel in 13 hours 50 minutes
- September 2023: 35 km North Channel in 13 hours 17 minutes to complete the Oceans Seven
Oceans Seven Swimmers in History:
- Stephen Redmond (Ireland)
- Anna Carin Nordin (Sweden)
- Michelle Macy (USA)
- Darren Miller (USA)
- Adam Walker (UK)
- Kimberley Chambers (New Zealand)
- Antonio Argüelles (Mexico)
- Ion Lazarenco Tiron (Moldavia and Ireland)
- Rohan Dattatrey More (India)
- Abhejali Bernardová (Czech Republic)
- Cameron Bellamy (South Africa)
- Lynton Mortensen (Australia)
- Thomas Pembroke (Australia)
- Nora Toledano Cadena (Mexico)
- Mariel Hawley Dávila (Mexico)
- André Wiersig (Germany)
- Elizabeth Fry (USA)
- Attila Mányoki (Hungary)
- Jonathan Ratcliffe (UK)
- Jorge Crivilles Villanueva (Spain)
- Adrian Sarchet (Guernsey)
- Prabhat Koli (India)
- Dina Levačić (Croatia)
- Herman van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
- Andy Donaldson (Scotland)
- Stephen Junk (Australia)
- Kieron Palframan (South Africa)
Australia (with Lynton Mortensen, Thomas Pembroke, Stephen Junk), South Africa (with Cameron Bellamy, Herman van der Westhuizen, Kieron Palframan, USA (with Michelle Macy, Darren Miller, Elizabeth Fry), Mexico (with Antonio Argüelles, Nora Toledano, Mariel Hawley Dávila), and the UK (with Adam Walker, Jonathan Ratcliffe, Adrian Sarchet) have had an equal number of Oceans Sevens swimmers.
© 2023 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
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