Attila Mányoki Completes Oceans Seven With A North Channel Crossing
Courtesy of Attila Mányoki, North Channel, Northern Ireland to Scotland.
Hungary’s Attila Mányoki had left the most difficult channel of the Oceans Seven challenge for last. His long journey to complete the North Channel – with two previous attempts – came to fruition on August 26th with a tough 12 hour 11 hour crossing.
In August 2015, he attempted a crossing of the North Channel, but was pulled out unconscious. In August 2018, he attempted another crossing, but was pulled by his escort crew and hospitalized for over a week after swimming 10 hours 40 minutes in the North Channel.
His cumulative time to complete the English Channel, North Channel, Tsugaru Channel, Catalina Channel, Cook Strait, Strait of Gibraltar and Molokai Channel was 64 hours 33 minutes 5 seconds – but none of it was as difficult as his final 35 km swim between Northern Ireland and Scotland. “I gave everything I had,” he explained later.
Infinity Channel Swimming reported the 53-year-old’s crossing as the 86th solo swim of the North Channel, the 79th swimmer, and the 47th male in history to be successful and caps off quite a prolific career of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Famer.
To achieve the Oceans Seven, he completed the following 7 channels:
1. English Channel in 2014 in 10 hours 46 minutes at the age of 49.
2. Tsugaru Channel in 2014 in 6 hours 29 minutes at the age of 49.
3. Molokai Channel in 2015 in 12 hours 1 minutes at the age of 50.
4. Catalina Channel in 2015 in 10 hours 59 minutes at the age of 50.
5. Cook Strait in 2016 in 6 hours 56 minutes at the age of 50.
6. Strait of Gibraltar in 2016 in 4 hours 8 minutes at the age of 51.
7. North Channel in 2019 in 12 hours 11 minutes 20 seconds at the age of 53.
But along the way, he also completed the 12.5-km Lake Balaton swim in Hungary in 1989, the 45 km Swimming Marathon of the Messinian Gulf in Greece in 1991, FINA Marathon Swimming World Cup events in Italy, Germany, Serbia, Greece, Egypt, Brazil and Argentina, open water swims in the Netherlands, Belgium, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, and Spain (Maratón Acuático Tabarca-Alicante), FINA Grand Prix races in Canada and the USA, crossed Lake Balaton in 2008 in 25 hours 42 minutes, did the Beltquerung swim in the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Germany, completed a 6 km Corinth Canal crossing, won the 15 km Cold Half in Hong Kong, completed the Swimming Marathon of the Messinian Gulf in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014, completed all four stage swims of the 2018 SCAR Swim Challenge in Arizona.
Oceans Seven Swimmers to Date:
1st: Stephen Redmond (Ireland)
2nd: Anna-Carin Nordin (Sweden)
3rd: Michelle Macy (USA)
4th: Darren Miller (USA)
5th: Adam Walker (UK)
6th: Kimberly Chambers (New Zealand)
7th: Antonio Argüelles (Mexico)
8th: Ion Lazarenco Tiron (Moldavia/Ireland)
9th: Rohan Dattatrey More (India)
10th: Abhejali Bernardová (Czech Republic)
11th: Cameron Bellamy (South Africa)
12th: Lynton Mortensen (Australia)
13th: Thomas Pembroke (Australia)
14th: Nora Toledano Cadena (Mexico)
15th: Mariel Hawley Dávila (Mexico)
16th: André Wiersig (Germany)
17th: Liz Fry (USA)
18th: Attila Mányoki (Hungary)
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