Swimming for 34 hours non-stop: UAE team completes 62-km swim, meets President

His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, received the nation's Swimming Team 62, who completed a 62-kilometre swim around Abu Dhabi island.

During the meeting, which took place at Qasr Al Bahr, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed exchanged cordial talks with the team and urged them to continue participating in awareness initiatives that contribute to educating the community and strengthening its role in preserving the marine environment.

The swimming initiative, in which a number of government and private institutions participated, aims to enhance community awareness of the importance of the marine environment and water safety. The swimmers, namely Mansour Al Dhaheri, Vania Neves and Arjuna Don, succeeded in completing a 62-kilometre swim around Abu Dhabi, which took 34 hours non-stop.

The initiative also aims to introduce the importance of the Conference of the Parties  to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), which the UAE will host later this year, in addition to preserving the environment and achieving sustainable development goals.

The team went through intensive training for a year, during which they swam a total of 900 kilometres.

Within the framework of this initiative, the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi also organised an event through which the department set a Guinness World Record for the largest number of participants in a water safety lesson in one place.

A number of entities, including the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge, Abu Dhabi Maritime, the Make A Wish Foundation, and the Storm Swimming Academy, participated in the biggest lesson on water safety, which highlighted the dangers of swimming in open water and raised awareness on relevant safety measures.