Moroccan athlete to swim across 5 continents

Moroccan athlete Hassan Baraka is planning to start a new challenge by swimming across the five continents. The adventure, at the same time a sports, ecological and civic one, will be undertaken under the honorary presidency of HRH Princess Lalla Hasnaa, chairwomen of the Mohammed VI Foundation for environment protection. The young swimmer, aged 26, had already swum across the Gibraltar strait. He will start this new challenge from Wutung, in Papua-New Guinea, heading to Mabo (Indonesia), crossing the 20 km-long distance separating Oceania and Asia. Baraka will then take on Africa and Asia, from Taba, in Egypt, to Haql (Saudi Arabia), before linking Asia and Europe through the 7 km-long bank between eastern and western Istanbul. The last stage will take him from Little Diomede Island in Alaska (USA) to Big Diomede Island (Russia), on 6 km in a temperature of 0 degrees Celsius. Hassan Baraka was the youngest Arab participant in the Ironman European championships in 2011 in Nice (France) and in 2012 in Frankfurt (Germany). The Moroccan champ is coached by Serrana Fernandez, from Uruguay who still holds her country’s backstroke record on the 50 m, 100m and 200 m.