Guwahati News Desk: Elvis Ali Hazarika has made history by becoming the first Assamese to effortlessly swim the 38 kilometres from Dharamtar Jetty to the Gateway of India in the Arabian Sea. The swim began at 1 a.m. on November 23 and took a total of 10 hours to accomplish. Hazarika has previously stated that the competition was part of his training for the projected North Channel Swimming event that he plans to do next year.
“It was a challenging challenge since we swam with very large fish and couldn’t see well at night owing to the lack of light in the water,” Hazarika remarked after finishing the swim. “For me and the people of Assam, this is a dream come true,” he continued.
Hazarika began his journey in the United States and swam over 80 kilometres in a time of 10 hours and 59 minutes to achieve his destination in Mexico. Hazarika was accompanied on the trek by West Bengal swimmer Rimo Saha, who swam alongside him for over four hours. The overall cost of the travel is anticipated to be in the range of Rs 6-7 lakh.
Hazarika risked his life crossing the Catalina Channel, which is home to a wide variety of hazardous aquatic species, particularly sharks. The Catalina Channel (formerly known as the San Pedro Channel), which connects Santa Catalina Island to the mainland of Southern California, is regarded as one of the world’s most historically important and continuously popular marathon swims. Hazarika honoured his swim to the memory of two young people from the region, Abhijeet Nath and Nilotpal Das, who was killed by a mob in Panjuri hamlet of Dokmoka in Karbi Anglong district exactly a year ago in June.
The year before, the ace swimmer made history by being the first Assamese to swim 29 kilometres of the 33-kilometre-long English Channel. Hazarika had previously won 68 national and six international gold medals in various swimming competitions. He also represented India at the Asia Pacific Swimming Championships in 1991, when he was just nine years old.
