Lewis Pugh (1992), Otto Thaning (1992) and Abigail Brown (2010) were pioneers in a warm-water lake swim in Africa. They have all swum across Lake Malawi. The lake, the third largest in Africa and the eighth largest lake in the world, is located between Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania.

Kaitlin Harthoorn of the USA and Milko van Gool of the Netherlands this attempt to replicate this feat on Saturday.

Harthoorn and van Gool will start swimming across Lake Malawi at dawn at its narrowest point from Cape Ngombo to the beach of Hotel Livingstonia in Senga Bay, a distance of approximately 24 kilometers. Each swimmer will be escorted by a support boat and crew.

Brown holds the record of 9 hours 45 minutes that is the goal of 17-year-old Harthoorn, a student at the African Bible College Christian Academy in Lilongwe. She is a competitive swimmer for the Malawi national team who is raising funds for the Adziwa Orphan Care project in Kauma Village, outside Lilongwe. The Adziwa Orphan Care Project built homes and a school for 500 students in Kauma village as well as sponsors families to take care of orphans.

46-year-old van Gool is an English Channel swimmer and European Union diplomat currently posted in Malawi who trains at the African Bible College in Lilongwe with Harthoorn.

For more information on the Lake Malawi marathon swims, visit here.

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