I am extremely happy and satisfied to have successfully completed the Cook Strait, one of the toughest swimming marathons. This was stated by the Bulgarian ice swimmer Tsanko Tsankov at a press conference at the Bulgaria Press Club after his return to the country from New Zealand, a BGNES reporter reported. There, Tsanko swam one of the most difficult swimming marathons – the Cook Strait, in record time.
“I am extremely happy and satisfied to have successfully completed the Cook Strait, one of the most difficult swimming marathons. At that, with the fastest time of the racing year. The opportunities to swim across the strait are very limited - only three months of the year, as the temperature of the water makes swimming impossible. As soon as we arrived in New Zealand and my first training there, I prepared for extremely difficult conditions. Already in the first days after an hour's training, I found myself getting hypothermic - it took me 45 minutes to recover. As the match day approached, a decision was made by the captain of the New Zealand team to change the date from 2nd April to 7th April. Conditions were also slightly less favourable. This was my hardest swim to date, although each marathon has its own specifics and characteristics. From the start, I was subjected to this very cold water and in the first hour after the start there were big waves and strong currents. Subsequently, there was a calm stretch of water. There was one key moment in the final leg of the Cook Strait - about two hours before the finish there were also big waves. Then we made the biggest deviation," began Tsankov, who is one of the athletes supported by the Sports in Bulgaria Foundation.
"All the time I was able to maintain concentration and a clear view of the marathon itself, on my condition - in the final stage I felt as if my orientation was being disturbed. This was due to a mid-body hypothermia. I had to fight through willpower and mental strength. Mental resilience is very important because only using the psyche can one counteract such difficulties as hypothermia, cold water and others. It is very important not to swim the Cook Strait slowly unless the swimmer has a large amount of subcutaneous fat. Otherwise, I have to make up for it with more muscle. The conditions did not allow me to distribute my forces better. I never thought for a moment of giving up, as that is one of the worst things about a marathon swim. The biggest difficulty came from the excessively cold water temperatures. I have very good stamina and speed, but the combination of these factors makes things very difficult. I felt a lot of tension when our boat captain told us that the boat had a damaged gearbox and we could postpone the swim until December," our swimmer also admitted.
His manager Nikolay Iliev was also at the event at Press Club Bulgaria. "Sports in Bulgaria Foundation are general sponsors of what Tsanko does and what happens in open water. The film for him will be ready by the end of this week. From the next, we will start presenting it according to the preliminary requests, because the film will be very interesting. It will be presented for the first time at the Bulgaria Press Club, like the previous one," he said, adding about the Cook Strait crossing that there were devices on the boat to keep large fish at least within a 50m radius around it, which resulted in to complete safety during the marathon.
Iliev also showed an official document that Tsankov was the first Bulgarian to swim the Strait of Gibraltar, showing the media a map of the Strait itself, refuting the information that Petar Stoychev was the first to swim the distance in question. "The official document from the Strait of Gibraltar - the first Bulgarian is called Tsanko Tsankov, here is the map of the Strait of Gibraltar. The only swimming marathon with two specific conditions – a group of 4 people, with the condition that the last kilometre should be competitive. The other is according to the rules of the strait, the competitor is entitled to a neoprene swimming suit up to 0.3 mm thick. These are the rules of Gibraltar. In order to receive this document, it means that you must swim according to the rules. Everything is official."
Tsankov added: "My goal was to become the first Bulgarian to swim the Strait of Gibraltar - to swim it in a swimsuit to promote one of our sponsors. For the crossing of the Santa Catalina Strait, we have a certificate, for Cook we are still waiting for it", he commented and revealed his next goal: "We have everything planned - in the month of October between 1-10 my attempt to swim the Molokai Strait is planned. I need to be prepared for a swim of about 60 km, just over 15 hours. From the point of view of temperature, there will be no problems. A lot of swimmers say it's their hardest marathon." /BGNES
