Pune's long-distance swimmer Rohan More became the first Asian and youngest player to swim across the Cooke Strait between the north and south islands of New Zealand. He completed this feat in 8 hours and 37 minutes. Rohan got the chance to do so on 9 February after waiting for the last several days due to bad weather.
In the first 5 hours of his swimming, the waves were calm and the temperature was around 19 degrees Celsius, but as he turned south the sea temperature dropped and reached 4 degrees, but he met it even in difficult conditions. He is the 9th swimmer in the world to do so.
Rohan completed the 22 km stretch in Cook Strait in 8.37 hours. Rohan told that he had been trying for this since 2015.
In this marathon swimming challenge, swimmers have to cross 7 long distances to different seas. It is considered equivalent to climbing the highest mountains of the 7 continents.
This includes the North Channel, The Cook Strait, The Molokai Channel, The English Channel, The Catalin Channel, The Sugaroo Strait and the Strait of Gibraltar in the Challenge.