Dominican long distance swimmer Marcos Diaz has accomplished his goal of breaking the round trip record for crossing the Straits of Gibraltar, and setting a new record for swimming between continents, Europe to Africa. The 31 year old swimmer is a two-time winner of the Toroneos Gulf Crossing (Greece), and last year he swam across the English Channel. His time of 8 hours and 31 minutes for the swim between Spain and Morocco broke the recent record by Pieter Christian Jongeneel on 31 July of 9 hours 59 minutes with optimum weather conditions. Diaz made the crossing from Tarifa in southern Spain to Morocco in a time of 2 hours and 56 minutes and then swam back across in the afternoon. In the past, those who have attempted the crossing had left from Morocco. Diaz’s swim was sponsored by the Ministry of Youth.