Alper Sunacoglu
Alper Sunaçoğlu who is known for his records in swimming and performance sports swam 280 km in 125 hours with no security closely protecting or escorting him in the Mediterranean Sea.
Alper is a Turkish open water swimmer and member of the 24-hour club with his 78 km (48.4 miles) marathon swim from Turkey to the island of Cyprus on 4 September 2010 in 26 hours 15 minutes. He broke the previous record of 43 hours 20 minutes set in 1973 by Ersin Aydin, an Honour Swimmer of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame.
Sunaçoğlu has also done a 30 km swim in the Bosphorus (Istanbul) on 23 April 2011 and a 60 km swim in the Dardanelles on 29 October 2012.
In his journey to world record he only had electronic GPS to plan his route, food to last him 5 days and first aid medicine for emergencies with him.
The purpose and the category of the record were to swim and survive in open seas without a boat. He also mentioned that the American swimmer Diana Nyad swam 177 km in 52 hours whereas he swam 280 km 125 hours.
A world record dedicated to world children
Alper stated that he would like to dedicate his world record for the world children that are being killed especially for those in Gaza and Syria.
Seas must be protected
On the other hand he stated that he ate a banana and kept the skin with him in order to keep environment clean even do it was a weight which he had to carry with him while he was swimming for the world record. He also wanted share this message with everyone that he will be grateful if everyone had the similar sensitivity to keep and protect our seas and Mediterranean Sea clean so that they can enjoy their safe and clean swim.
Finally Alper Sunacoglu stated that he enjoyed his swim in the good weather and missed sleeping.