Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
Ion Lazarenco Tiron swam into history today.
The 39-year-old Moldavian and Irish citizen living in Bray, Ireland became the eighth person ever, second from Ireland and first from Moldavia to complete the seven difficult channels of the Oceans Seven.
“Wow, what a tough day at the office,” reported the 39-year-old Lazarenco on his Facebook page. “Stephen called it he was spot on…there wasn’t anything more that could have gone wrong. But the outcome is what matters. [I] just got back to my hotel (3 am here) and I’m shattered!!!“
Lazarenco started off his marathon swimming career with a dramatic 8-day 235 km charity stage swim called the Swimming Marathon Nistru – Unites Moldova in Moldova.
Once he was settled down in Ireland, he started to expand his open water swimming horizons with regularity:
* He did a 23 km swim from Bray to Wicklow.
* He completed an Ice Mile swim in Wicklow Mountains in 3.3ºC water.
* He swam in Tunisia (Swim of Peace), Switzerland (26.4 km International Self-Transcendence Marathon Swim in 9 hours 8 minutes), and New York (20 Bridges Manhattan Island Swim in New York in 7 hours 54 minutes).
* He was honored as the Leinster and Irish Open Water Swimmer of the Year in 2015-16 and 2016-17.
* He won the 2016 Male Senior Swimmer of the Year from the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association.
Back back in May 2014, he began an adventure, a 3+ year journey to complete the Oceans Seven:
* On May 11th 2014, he completed a 14.4 km crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain to Morocco in 4 hours 41 minutes in 17ºC water escorted by Columba 1.
* On September 18th 2014, he crossed the English Channel from England to France in 13 hours 34 minutes 12 seconds at the age of 36 under the auspices of the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation and escorted by Eddie Spelling in 16ºC water becoming the first Moldovan to do it. His crew included observer Jim Boucher and crew Angela Lazarenco (wife) and Marin Tiron (brother).
* On August 11th 2015, he completed a 35 km crossing of the North Channel from Donaghadee, Northern Ireland to Scotland in 16 hours 23 minutes 45 seconds at the age of 37 with escort pilot Brian Meharg with crew members Marin Tiron, Lucas Kowalczyk and Victor Birlea, and observer Maureen McCoy in 11.8ºC to 12.3ºC water.
* On September 12th 2016, he crossed the 32.3 km Catalina Channel from the Southern California mainland to Santa Catalina Island in 12 hours 1 minute 14 seconds.
* On October 5th 2016, he completed a 42 km crossing of the Molokai Channel from Molokai Island to Oahu in 18 hours 11 minutes [photos of finish on Oahu above].
* On July 25th 2017, he completed a 19.5 km crossing of the Tsugaru Channel from Honshu to Hokkaido in Japan in 11 hours 20 minutes.
* On January 27th 2018, he completed a crossing of the Cook Strait in 11 hours 5 minutes to complete the Oceans Seven.
He joins seven other open water swimming luminaries who have completed the global channel challenge:
1. Stephen Redmond (Ireland)
2. Anna-Carin Nordin (Sweden)
3. Michelle Macy (USA)
4. Darren Miller (USA)
5. Adam Walker (UK)
6. Kimberley Chambers (New Zealand)
7. Antonio Argüelles (Mexico)
8. Ion Lazarenco Tiron (Moldavia/Ireland)
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