Dominican Today reports that Dominican open water swim champion Marcos Díaz, whose goal is to link the five continents to promote war on poverty, will attempt to cross the Red Sea between Jordan and Egypt from June 9 to 11, 2010, and culminate the second leg of his ordeal. Díaz, 35, had originally planned to link Asia and Africa by swimming from the coast of Yemen to the beaches of Djibouti, changed the itinerary due to the possible presence of Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden and the lack of security.
The Dominican athlete, who completed the first stage on May 13 crossing 19.5 kilometers in 4 hours, 18 minutes, from Papua New Guinea to Indonesia, visited United Nations programs in schools, hospitals and orphanages during his stay in both countries. As Good Will Ambassador of the Dominican Republic, Díaz’s swim across the continents is part of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals Campaign. [Also see Dominican Republic’s Marcos Díaz to Swim across the Continents.]
In 2005, Diaz set the world speed record between two continents when he crossed the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco both ways in 8 hours, 34 minutes. He is the first Dominican to have swum across the English Channel from England to France (37 kilometers) and he is also a two-time winner of the Toroneos Gulf Crossing in Halkidiki, Greece (26 kilometers).
For full article, see http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/world/2010/5/27/35844/Dominican-swimmer-tackles-shark-infested-waters-for-world-cause
For more information on Díaz, see http://www.marcosdiaz.net/app/en/marcos_diaz.aspx
