Beatriz Nantes and Thais Costa Coelho de Souza Complete Travessia do Leme ao Pontal Relay
Adherbal de Oliveira, the president of Leme to Pontal Swimming Association, reported the completion of the 22nd relay of the Travessia do Leme ao Pontal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “The TBT Team Bia and Thais relay included 33-year-old Beatriz Nantes and 32-year-old Thais Costa Coelho de Souza. They completed the 36 km course from Leme Beach to Pontal crossing in 11 hours 37 minutes on January 21st.
The two swimmers came from the city of São Paulo had the support of the technique Thais Sant’Ana of the Team Samir Barel who was aboard the escort boat Olympus 2 operated by captain Tiago Alberto da Silva together with the LPSA observer José Eduardo do Amaral Ferreira.
The LPSA regulations governing relays determine that athletes swim at 1-hour intervals, always taking turns in the same sequence until the end of the crossing.
The swim started at 2:09 am in clear, pleasant water of 24ºC on a full moon night. The first to enter the water was Nantes who had given birth to a beautiful baby boy less than 10 months ago. Mom was ready to go.
Beatriz is well known from Leme to Pontal, having been the seventh woman to complete the solo swim in history, setting the second best time among women. It is always a great honor for the LPSA team to welcome swimmers who are passionate about the sport like Beatriz.
Thais Coelho, with the experience of only one marathon, arrived demonstrating a lot of tranquility to test herself in the open sea. To overcome adversities such as swimming with waves, currents, tides and winds. Thais Coelho swam second during the night shift of the crossing. She stood out during the night leg for her ease of orienting herself by the escort boat.
Because there were forecasts of strong easterly winds that could compromise the safety of the swimmers in the afternoon off the coast of the city of Rio de Janeiro, the swim was started while the tide was rising. This brought many difficulties during the first 6 hours of crossing, when the swimmers had to swim with opposite currents and established a pace of 2.5 kph. In addition to the currents, the swimmers also suffered from seasickness when they were on board the escort boat.
But following the plan, the strong winds were avoided. As the relay advanced on the course, the conditions of the currents improved. In the final third of the crossing, the duo kept swimming hard and completed their challenge with a fantastic pace of 4.4 km/hour over the final kilometers.
Thais Coelho reached the sands of Pontal beach, after swimming 11 hours 37 minutes. Another special day at LPSA with a wonderful achievement and full of moments of overcoming and determination of the challengers. Leme to Pontal is definitely nothing like it!“
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