August 19, 2019 – Another swimming success for Dina Levačić!
In 7 hours, 13 minutes and 15 seconds, 23-year-old Solin native Dina Levačić completed the Tsugaru Strait to complete the fourth open water channel swim out of the seven in the ‘Oceans Seven’ challenge. The channel is located between Japan’s largest island, Honshu and Hokkaido, and high waves and strong frontal wind accompanied the Croatian swimmer the entire way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v=iZgbpqyZM0I
The member of the Split Swimming Club set one of her best times and became only the 67th person to complete the Tsugaru Strait.
“For my Dixie and all the animals waiting for their home,” Dina said after her great success.
The ‘Ocean Seven’ is a series of seven international swimming marathons, modeled after the Seven Summits mountaineering challenge. Dina Levačić had already swum three marathon channels from the ‘Ocean Seven’ series before attempting the Tsugaru: Catalina Channel, English Channel (La Manche) and Moloka’i Channel. After the Tsugaru Strait in Japan, Dina will still need to overcome the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland, the Strait of Gibraltar between Europe and Africa and the Cook Strait in New Zealand.
Dina Levačić is an open swimming champion and member of the long-distance swimming club in Split. She first recorded impressive results at her Argentine tour at the age of 17, placing fourth in the Rosario marathon and securing sixth place in the 57-kilometer marathon from Santa Fe to Coronda. This Argentine trifecta was the longest open-swimming marathon in the world, following an 88-kilometer route. Dina finished in less than 10.5 hours, and placed 5th overall, less than an hour after the winner of the competition.
Dina then accepted the marathon challenge of her career – the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming. It began with the Marathon Island Marathon Swim, which saw the Split native swim 48.5 km in 7:33:50. Dina then tackled the Catalina Channel, where she swam 32.5 km in 9:47:53. The infamous part of the Triple Crown, however, was the English Channel – a 33.7 km stretch between England and France. Dina completed the challenge in 11 hours and 42 minutes and thus became the first Croatian female athlete to swim the La Manche in its entirety, and the first Croatian athlete to complete the Triple Crown. Not to mention that Dina is also the sixth athlete in history to have completed the Triple Crown in under 90 days.
Last August, Dina conquered the 42-kilometer long Molokai channel, from Molokai Island to Oahu Island, Hawaii, in 13 hours.
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