Sports Desk:

Bangladeshi swimmers Mahfizur Rahman Sagor and Nazmul Haque Himel are all set to make an attempt to cross the English Channel, a strait in Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England and northern France, along with two Indian swimmers in a quest to brace the open-water challenge.

The duo is scheduled to leave for England in the first week of July and attempt the feat between July 22 and 25, following a week-long adjustment in cold water of the Atlantic.

Sagor and Himel had initially been allotted a slot in 2028 by the Channel Swimming Association (CSA) but they brought the slot forward to 2025 after deciding to swim a relay along with India’s Elvis Ali Hazarika and Rimo Saha, two swimmers who have already crossed the North Channel of Europe in 2022.

Brojen Das was the first Bangladeshi (then East Pakistan) and South Asian swimmer to have crossed the English Channel in 1958. He later crossed the 33.4km channel five more times. South Asian Games gold-medalist Mosharraf Hossain also crossed the English Channel in 1987.

“We feel proud that we have taken an attempt to cross the English Channel, 37 years after Mosharraf Hossain crossed the channel. It will be a breakthrough if we can cross the channel,” said Himel after the official press conference of the 37th National Age-group Swimming Championships at BOA auditorium on Tuesday.

Asked about the challenge of crossing the channel, Himel said: “It is really challenging because the water temperature is between 15 to 19 degrees Celsius. Besides, jelly fish and traffic of ships are also two other challenges.”

Each of the four swimmers will swim non-stop one hour, then another swimmer will replace him respectively in the four-swimmer relay in the English Channel.