Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
Motoko Honma (本間素子) is a Japanese open water swimmer who has participated in a number of relay channel swims.
She was a member of Team Umiou (海王《うみおう》that completed a 12 hours 45 minute crossing of the 19 km Tsugaru Channel in northern Japan in 2013 together with Tomokazu Sakurai, Nobu Arihirsa, Yuko Isozaki, Shinpei Kamata, and Fujiko Kawasaki.
Then she crossed the 43 km Sado Channel in western Japan on the Ocean Navi relay that took 16 hours 18 minutes to swim across Sado Channel together with Masayuki Moriya, Hidehiko Kato, Kaori Fukusima, Noriko Kawasaki, Ayako Kawasaki, Yoshimitsu Kitazawa, Noriko Kimura, Jun Kuwabara, Kumiko Koizumi, Maki Sakamoto, Akira Shima, Etsuko Shima, Akiko Niide, Isami Mitsuhashi, Kyoko Morikawa, and Eriko Yoshino.
Then in June this year, Honma made her second Sado Channel crossing on a relay. This time, she and Hiroko Kasahara, Noriko Kimura, Kumiko Koizumi, Maki Sakamoto, Daisuke Tanaka, Mayumi Doi, Rei Yamazaki, and Masayuki Moriya completed a crossing in 13 hours 40 minutes.
Finally, she was ready mentally and physically to attempt a solo crossing.
Last month on July 22nd, Honma finally realized her dream and completed a solo wetsuit crossing of the Tsugaru Channel in 13 hours 26 minutes.
Copyright © 2016 by World Open Water Swimming Association