Dominican swimmer Marcos Diaz, 31 years, and his delegation have arrived in Tarifa, Spain, where they have found strong winds and 16C temperatures, according to El Caribe. As well as the challenge of swimming across the Straits of Gibraltar in the next few days, a new world record has been announced for the swim that the national champion swimmer wants to break. Spanish swimmer Pieter Christian Jongeneel, of Dutch origin, was able to reduce the record by one whole hour on 31 July, when he swam back and forth between Spain and Morocco in 9 hours 59 minutes with optimum weather conditions. He broke the previous 1990 record of 10 hours 58 minutes. This means that Marcos Diaz will have to make a stronger effort in his proposed feat of making the world record swim across the straits.
To prepare for the event, Marcos Diaz participated in and won the Greek marathon, Toroneos Gulf Crossing, a 24-26 km distance in Nikiti of Calkidiki in 6 hours and 26 minutes time. The runner up, Siouas Panagiotis of Greece did a time of 7.30 minutes. The race is regarded as the most difficult international open water swimming marathon of Europe. Marcos Diaz already has crossed the English Channel.