A little over four years ago, Andrey Bozhko (39, Russia, MSF bio here, @nemec_mc) attempted a crossing of the Tsugaru Channel from Aomori to Hokkaido in northern Japan, but his crossing was aborted after 4 hours 40 minutes.

For a swimmer who has completed crossings of the English Channel (13 hours 48 minutes), Catalina Channel (12 hours 58 minutes), Molokai Channel (21 hours 37 minutes), Strait of Gibraltar (4 hours 4 minutes), Cook Strait (9 hours 17 minutes), Lake Taupo (13 hours 19 minutes), and Lake Zurich (8 hours 37 minutes), it was a disappointing swim.

But Bozhko got the job done this year. He swam nearly a perfect crossing and managed crossing the infamous Tsugaru Current, finishing the sixth channel of his Oceans Seven journey.

Bozhko said in Russian (translated into English), “The Tsugaru Strait [is] conquered. It was made possible by all the training, the team’s hard work, the captain’s professionalism, and a stroke of luck. We started right at dawn; the water was warm, and by some miracle, we managed to avoid the Dragon Current which would have simply swept us off to the east. Irina provided expert nutrition and inspired me to swim with all my might.

She is every bit the hero, especially given the heavy swell and strong winds. I had to work hard for an hour in the cool water during the final kilometer, but it was all worth it. A magnificent swim—I really enjoyed it, even with the headwinds and waves (which came as a surprise). Upon returning to port, we received a surprisingly warm welcome from the locals and the local TV crew—so heartwarming! Thank you.”

He finished in 8 hours 20 minutes, the best time of the season so far.

Tsugaru Channel Swimmers

1. David Yudovin (USA) in 13 hours 10 minutes (7 July 1990)
2. Steven Munatones (USA, Honshu-to-Hokkaido) in 6 hours 11 minutes 17 seconds (July 1990)
3. Steven Munatones (USA, Hokkaido-to-Honshu) in 6 hours 39 minutes (July 1990)
4. Chieko Osako (Japan) in 12 hours 28 minutes (August 1994)
5. Miyuki Fujita (Japan) in 11 hours 36 minutes (2005)
6. Miyuki Fujita (Japan) on 31 August 2006
7. Miyuki Fujita (Japan) on 2 September 2006
8. Miyuki Fujita (Japan) on 4 September 2006
9. Masayuki Moriya (Japan) in 11 hours 55 minutes (2011) in wetsuit
10. Penny Palfrey (Australia, Hokkaido-to-Honshu) in 14 hours 30 minutes (2011)
11. Darren Miller (USA) in 15 hours 55 minutes (2012)
12. Stephen Redmond (Ireland) in 12 hours 45 minutes (2012)
13. Michelle Macy (USA) in 8 hours 55 minutes (2012)
14. Forrest Nelson (USA) in 9 hours 26 minutes (2012)
15. Craig Lenning (USA) in 10 hours 44 minutes (2012)
16. Pat Gallant-Charette (USA) in 19 hours 36 minutes (2012)
17. Anna-Carin Nordin (Sweden) in 19 hours 11 minutes (2012)
18. Kenichi Setsumasa (Japan) in 7 hours 30 minutes (2012)
19. Adam Walker (Great Britain) in 15 hours 31 minutes (2013)
20. Kimberley Chambers (New Zealand) in 9 hours 38 minutes (2014)
21. Attila Mányoki (Hungary) in 7 hours 29 minutes (2014)
22. Guy Moar (Australia) in 11 hours 32 minutes (2015)
23. Daniel Curtis (USA) in 13 hours 39 minutes (2015)
24. Antonio Argüelles (Mexico) in 12 hours 38 minutes (2015)
25. Rohans More (India) in 10 hours 37 minutes (2015)
26. Liz Fry (USA) in 15 hours 48 minutes (2015)
27. Abhejali Bernardova (Czech Republic) in 11 hours 7 minutes (2016)
28. Stephen Junk (Australia) in 11 hours 2 minutes (2016)
29. Honoka Hasegawa (Japan) in 8 hours 31 minutes (2016)
30. Toshio Tominaga (Japan) in 9 hours 58 minutes (2016)
31. Elizabeth Fry (USA) in 15 hours 48 minutes (2016)
32. Ion Lazarenco Tiron (Moldova) in 11 hours 20 minutes (2017)
33. Jorge Crivilles Villanueva (Spain) in 8 hours 28 minutes (2017)
34. Adrian Sarchet (Guernsey) in 14 hours 2 minutes 9 seconds (2017)
35. Prabhat Raju Koli (India) in 9 hours 52 minutes (2017)
36. Cameron Bellamy (South Africa) in 11 hours 7 minutes 28 seconds (2018)
37. Ryan Utsumi (USA) in 8 hours 46 minutes (2018)
38. Nora Toledano Cadena (Mexico, tandem swim with Mariel Hawley Dávila) in 6 hrs 20 minutes 52 seconds (2018)
39. Mariel Hawley Dávila (Mexico, tandem swim with Nora Toledano Cadena) in 6 hours 20 minutes 52 seconds (2018)
40. André Wiersig (Germany) in 12 hours 55 minutes (2018)
41. Andrew Hunt (Australia) in 10 hours 52 minutes (2018)
42. Tomonari Ogino (Japan, wetsuit) in 12 hours 5 minutes 50 seconds (2018)
43. Thomas Pembroke (Australia) in 15 hours 1 minutes 30 seconds (2018)
44. Lynton Mortensen (Australia) in 9 hours 34 minutes 15 seconds (2018)
45. Masaki Sugita (Japan) in 13 hours 18 minutes 43 seconds (2018)
46. Simon Olliver (New Zealand) in 11 hours 58 minutes 0 seconds (2018)
47. Bogusław Ogrodnik (Poland) in 12 hours 30 minutes (2018)
48. Jonathan Ratcliffe (UK) in 11 hours 0 minutes (2019)
49. Claire Faranda (France) in 9 hours 51 minutes 24 seconds (2019)
50. Kieron Palframan (South Africa) in 8 hours 41 minutes 5 seconds (2019)
51. Nathalie Pohl (Germany) in 10 hours 9 minutes 40 seconds (2019)
52. Marcia Cleveland (USA) in 10 hours 11 minutes 2 seconds (2019)
53. Dina Levačić (Croatia) in 7 hours 13 minutes 15 seconds (2019)
54. Matthias Kaßner (Germany)in 9 hours 45 minutes (2019)
55. Emre Erdogan (Turkey) in 7 hours 36 minutes (2019)
56. Luca Pozzi (Italy) in 8 hours 20 minutes 58 seconds (2019)
57. Herman van der Westhuizen (South Africa) in 10 hours 22 minutes 37 seconds (2019)
58. Kieron Palframan (South Africa) in 8 hours 49 minutes (2019)
59. Mitsuru Okazaki (Japan) in 9 hours 57 minutes 5 seconds (2021) in a wetsuit
60. Caitlin O’Reilly (New Zealand) in 11 hours 37 minutes 41 seconds (2022)
61. Tariq Qazi (USA/Japan) in 11 hours 20 minutes 17 seconds (2022)
62. Ayaka Matsushita (Japan) in 10 hours 59 minutes 56 seconds (2022)
63. Andrew Donaldson (Scotland) in 13 hours 4 minutes (2023)
64. Bárbara Hernández Huerta (Chile) in 11 hours 40 minutes (2024)
65. Mark Sowerby (Australia) in 10 hours 6 minutes (2024)
66. Zach Margolis (USA) in 10 hours 13 minutes (2024)
67. Petar Stoychev (Bulgaria) in 9 hours 30 minutes (2024)
68. Paul Georgescu (Romania) in 7 hours 31 minutes (2024)
69. Steven Leitch (USA) in 10 hours 3 minutes (2025)
70. Eduardo Collazos Valle-Guayo (Peru) n 12 hours 11 minutes (2025)
71. Rob Woodhouse (Australia) in 11 hours 50 minutes (2025)
72. Andreas Waschburger (Germany) in 8 hours 43 minutes 21 seconds (2025)
73. Alessandra Cima (Brazil) in 13 hours 39 minutes (2025)
74. Bengisu Avci (Turkey) in 14 hours 30 minutes (2025)
75. Joanne Norman (Australia) in 13 hours 17 minutes (2025)
76. Paul Leonard (Great Britain) in 11 hours 45 minutes (2026)
77. Gráinne Moss (Ireland) in 12 hours 39 minutes (2026)
75. Karen Ennis (Great Britain) in 13 hours 14 minutes (2026)
76. Rob Lea (USA) in 11 hours 44 minutes (2026)
77. Anshuman Jhingran (India) in 12 hours 39 minutes (2026)
78. Joe Zemaitis (USA) in 11 hours 51 minutes (2026)
79. Sandra Ramírez Vinay (Mexico) in 10 hours 6 minutes (2026)
80. Andrey Bozhko (Russia) in 8 hour 20 minutes (2026)
81. Toni Enderli (Switzerland) in 9 hours 40 minutes (2026)

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