History maker Prabhat Koli aims for world championship after conquering Oceans Seven Challenge

Days after conquering a tough Oceans Seven challenge, India’s Prabhat Koli has now kept his eyes on a World Championship. The 23-year-old Koli, who became the youngest in the world to accomplish the Oceans Seven challenge, is now aiming to represent India in the Ice Swimming World Championship.

Speaking to PTI, the prolific Indian swimmer confirmed his desire to compete in a championship. “I am hoping to represent India in ice swimming world championship, for which I am starting the workout now. The competition will be sometime in 2024-25, they (International Ice Swimming Association) have not confirmed the dates yet,” he told the news agency.

The swimmer was left emotional after completing the challenge as it took 8 years of hard work and determination to find himself in the record books. He shed light on his experience and hard work. “The Oceans Seven challenge started for me in 2015 when I attempted the English Channel.

Since then I have been chasing the Oceans Seven Challenge one by one. Every swim has a different story and different angle and perspective.
Every channel has a different experience,” Koli said.

“I was very emotional at the completion of the Challenge because it is something I was chasing down for the past 8-10 years.”I was a little satisfied but very happy I would say, because after all my hard work and sacrifice, even my parents’, whatever they did for me, has done all good. It all culminated in success,” he added.

Koli completed the Oceans Seven challenge when he accomplished the Cook Strait in New Zealand in 8 hours and 41 minutes. His journey to this challenge began in 2015 when he took the English Channel. The Oceans Seven is a highly testing challenge. It includes the English Channel (between England and France), the North Channel (between Ireland and Scotland), the Straits of Gibraltar (between Spain and Morocco), the Catalina Channel (between Santa Catalina Island and California), the Molokai Channel (between Molokai and Oahu in Hawaii), the Tsugaru Strait (between Honshu and Hokkaido in Japan), and finally the Cook Strait (between the north and south islands of New Zealand).

He also shared a dangerous experience during one of his challenges. “When I was swimming there (Kaiwi Channel), we started in the evening and swam for the whole night and completed it by the morning. It took me around 17 hours and 22 minutes. In the night it was pitch dark and I could not see a thing. When I was swimming, I heard some noises of whales but I could not see them since it was too dark and the weather was bad. The kayak even slipped over me twice. I would definitely say Molokai Channel (was the most dangerous) in aspects of the conditions,” the Indian added.

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