At the 22K IJsselmeermarathon Stavoren – Medemblik in the Netherlands, there is a brother-sister lock on the record book.

The personable Olympic 10K Marathon Swim gold medalist Maarten van der Weijden, who was on his recovery road back from leukemia, set the record for the fastest crossing in 4 hours and 20 minutes in 2004.

Maarten‘s sister, Etta van der Weijden, set the female record in 4 hours and 33 minutes in 1996.

King of the IJsselmeermarathon, Joost Kuijlaars, has finished the race 20 times out of the 39 official versions of the race. His best time was 4:55 in 1997. The Queen of the IJsselmeermarathon is International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame honor swimmer Irene van der Laan who has done the race 14 times to date.

In an unusual attempt last year, Paul Oudendijk finished the IJsselmeermarathon in 6:48.30, the only individual to have finished the swim doing only breaststroke.

Copyright © 2010 by Steven Munatones