Ulta endurance athlete Neil Agius will go ahead with his attempted world-record swim around the Maltese Islands tomorrow, despite the inclement weather.
Agius plans to swim non-stop around Malta, Gozo and Comino in an attempt to break his own record for the longest open-water swim.
He will set off shortly after 8 am on Saturday from Mellieħa Bay. He will then head southeast and clockwise around Malta towards Gozo, and then back towards
The route around the entire archipelago is 104 km, but Agius is planning to swim a total distance of 160km. The gruelling challenge is expected to take him three days to complete.
Despite rain and clouds covering most of the skies, a team of weather analysts believe that conditions will be ideal for Agius to set off tomorrow.
“We have been analysing the weather conditions and looked at every step of the route Neil will be swimming. There will be some tough spots of weather but this three-day window that starts on Saturday gives him the best possible chance,” said Gordon Bugeja who heads logistics for Team Neil.
If successful, Agius will break the current world record for the longest non-stop, unassisted, current neutral sea swim, which he himself holds.
Agius set that record when he swam from Linosa to Malta for a distance of 125.7km in 2021 and finished in Xlendi in Gozo.
Since then, there have been several attempts, including two earlier this year, but no one has managed to break this record officially. This will be Agius’ first attempt at breaking the record after he was forced to abandon a similar swim in Spain last year.
“This is the first time anyone has ever attempted to swim around the entire Maltese archipelago and it is the first time that I will be attempting to set a new world record right here at home,” Agius said.
“I have been training hard, and the entire team has been working on this for months. Now is the right time to do this,” he added.
Those interested can track Neil's swim here.
Agius is using the swim to raise awareness about the state of Malta’s marine habitat aiming to raise awareness about critical environmental issues and inspire a collective commitment to protecting the Mediterranean Sea.
In collaboration with NGO Wave of Change and marine clean-up specialists Żibel, three clean-up events will be held, their locations and timings to be announced once the swim route and conditions are confirmed.
Żibel will be coordinating the clean-ups. The public can register their interest here and they will be informed by email once the location and times are confirmed.