After combing through 50 years of history, Nino Fazio in Sicily, Italy submitted the following open water swimming records that were set in the Strait of Messina in Sicily, Italy.

Along with many other open water swimming records around the world, the records are maintained by the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame and archived in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame website.

The 3.2K Strait of Messina:
• Fastest Male Freestyle Crossing: 30:50 by Giovanni Fiannacca
• Fastest Male Breaststroke Crossing: 36:09 by Diego Santoro
• Fastest Male Backstroke Crossing: 51:08 by Giovanni Arrabito
• Fastest Male Butterfly Crossing: 51:49 by Gianni Golini,
• Fastest Female Freestyle Crossing: 36:07 by Maria Betania Torre
• Fastest Female Breaststroke Crossing: 40:11 by Asya Cautela

The 6.5K two-way Strait of Messina records include:

• Fastest Freestyle: 1:22:23 by Nino Fazio
• Fastest Backstroke: 2:23:56 by Ettore Mercuri
• Fastest Butterfly: 2:23:56 by Gianni Golini
• Fastest Female Freestyle: 1:23:41 by Elena Lionello
• Fastest Female Breaststroke: 3:29:02 by Grazia De Gregorio
• Fastest Female Butterfly: 2:36:34 by Francesca Manzari

Additionally, Nino provided marathon swimming records from the Aeolian Islands to Sicily:

• 22.K from Vulcano to Milazzo: 5:27:07 by Giuseppe Nicosia
• 21K from Vulcano to Capo Calavà: 5:35:05 by Nino Fazio
• 21K from Vulcano to Capo Calavà (female): 5:37:02 by Cristina Scotto

If readers know of any certified open water swimming records (under 10 km in distance) or marathon swimming records, the information (athlete name, date, time, place and venue) can be emailed to the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame ([email protected]).

Copyright © 2010 by World Open Water Swimming Association