Google Is Nearly In The (Guinness) Books

Courtesy of WOWSA, Mountain View, California.

Back in 2009, the Camlough Team of 220 swimmers swam into the record books.

The Camlough Team swam 685.5 km (426.5 miles) back and forth across Lake Camlough in northern Ireland for 232 hours 52 minutes non-stop over 9 nights and 10 days under the leadership of Aoife McCourt-Lynch and Pádraig Mallon [shown above]. The team set a Guinness World Record for the Longest Distance Swimming in Relay (open water) and was a 2009 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year nominee.

The Irish group from the Newry Triathlon Club and all around Ireland did not quite break the overall pool swimming relay, set in 1979 by Americans Matt Howard, Todd Primmer, Matt Murphy, Sue Meckley, John Kocher and Dave Schilling who swam a total of 755.58 km (469.5 miles) in the YMCA Pool, Newark, Ohio, USA, but they certainly had fun in Lake Camlough throughout the days and nights between September 9th-19th 2009.

Coordinator Maria Murphy said, “This was a very serious and ultimately very successful attempt to break the world record for the longest continuous open water relay swim, but it’s fair to say that there was a really buzzing, carnival-type atmosphere at the Lake over the course of the 10-day marathon swim.”

Currently, the Google Masters are en route to break the 755.58 km global mark with one day to go. Craig Robinson, Joe Gardner, Erik Haugen, Sven Mawson, Collin Johnston, Tom Dowd, Rob Gray and Joe Young are attempting to break the YMCA record over an 11-day period at Google’s pool in Mountain View, California. The attempt is raising money for the Challenged Athletes Foundation and the U.S. Masters Swimming Swimming Saves Lives program.

To watch the Google Masters Swimmers’ Guinness World Record attempt live, visit here.

For more information on the Guinness World Record for the Longest distance (pool) swimming in relay, visit here.

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