Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, August 6, 2020: Kazakhstan's open-water marathon swimmer Vitaliy Khudyakov, who won a ticket to Tokyo 2020 at the 9th Asian Open Water Championship in Kuwait, marked one year before the start of open-water competitions in Tokyo with a record-breaking accomplishment, reports the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The four-time winner of the Asian Championships (2013, 2017, 2018 and 2019) and 2014 and 2016 Asian Beach Games champion swam across the world’s second largest alpine lake, Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan.
Despite the global pandemic, the athlete showed his strong belief in the Tokyo Olympic Games and also demonstrated his support for everyone working hard to make the Olympics happen next year.
Thus, the 56km swim was timed to coincide with the start of the open-water marathon competition in the Tokyo Olympics on August 5, 2021.
Rio 2016 Olympian Khudyakov, who turns 26 years old on August 7, started the swim on August 5 at 5.15am from the northern shore of Lake Issyl-Kul at Cholpon-Ata. He finished on the southern shore of Kadzhi-Sai after 13 hours and 18 minutes.
His swimming distance was 56.2km with water temperatures of 18-19 degrees Celsius.
This unique achievement was recorded by a representative of the Swimming Federation of the Kyrgyz Republic, Akhmet Anarbayev.
"I'm glad that I was able to achieve this result. The training was not in vain. I hope next year I will be able to surprise my fans with a bright result at the Olympic Games," said Vitaliy.
Yevgeniy Khudyakov, father and personal coach of the athlete, added: "Last year we managed to qualify for the Olympic Games. After Tokyo 2020 was postponed, Vitaliy and I wanted to make a special event dedicated to the Olympics so we came up with this idea.
“Frankly speaking, I thought many times to stop this swim, worrying about Vitaliy. But he still made this incredible achievement. It took several months to get ready for this challenge. We started the preparation at the beginning of this summer from smaller distances - 17km, then 25.5km and 35km. So he was well-prepared on the decisive day.
“Thanks to the National Olympic Committee of Kazakhstan we were provided with all the necessary conditions. I am incredibly proud of his achievement and I hope that at the Olympic Games next year we will again surprise our fellow countrymen," said the swimmer’s father and coach.
According to the NOC, the previous longest swim across Lake Issyk-Kul was 36km – so Vitaliy added a staggering 20km to this record-breaking achievement.
“We congratulate Vitaliy on this truly world-class achievement," said Andrey Kryukov, Secretary General of NOC Kazakhstan.
