August 03 / 2011
V. Urbonas crossed Russia’s Lake Baikal
On 29 July the 53 year old ultra-triathlete,Vidmantas Urbonas, completed a swimming cross of Lake Baikal, one of the coldest and deepest lakes in the world.
V.Urbonas Nuotrauka: I. Žilėnaitė / BFL)
On 29 July the 53 year old ultra-triathlete,Vidmantas Urbonas, completed a swimming cross of Lake Baikal, one of the coldest and deepest lakes in the world.
“I am already ashore. Everything went as planned” – the athlete reported to Baltic News Service on 29 July.
He announced that he had swum 46 kilometres in 17 hours, although the entire campaign covered two days.
“I could swim for a maximum of four hours in each stint, after 12-13 kilometres I needed to return to the ship in order to get warmer” – said V.Urbonas.
According to him, the temperature of the lake was 3-6 degrees centigrade. Extended periods of time spent in these conditions can pose a serious threat to one’s body temperature. The athlete said that he was ready for this, undertaking several precautions to avoid any health complications, which included wearing a special protective bodysuit.
The athlete of Panevėžys claimed that he is pleased with his swimming effort.
The crossing of Lake Baikal in Russia is part of the campaign ‘Water is life’. It is the third lake in this campaign to be swum across by the ultra-triathlete.
V. Urbonas, an activist for ecological campaigns in both the Neman River and the Baltic Sea, has undertaken a task to swim across five major freshwater lakes throughout the world’s continents.
In 2009 he swam across Lake Titicaca in South America and dedicated this feat of swimming to the millennium since Lithuania’s first written existence. In 2010 his crossing of Lake Yellowstone in the USA was dedicated to the 600th anniversary of the Žalgiris battle.
www.LithuaniaTribune.lt
Remembering Romas Kalanta, the flaming herald of freedom
Vilnius sees growth in tourist numbers
A Lithuanian wins a beauty contest in China
Lithuania ahead Latvia and Estonia in global happiness report
