September 14, 2016, is a very special day for Romanian Paul Georgescu, 37, as that is the day when he became the fastest Romanian to cross the English Channel. It took him 13 hours and 36 minutes to swim the 54 kilometer distance between Dover in England and Calais in France.

The Romanian, a former professional water polo player who currently works as a sports teacher at the International British School of Bucharest, returned home on September 18, with family, students, and friends waiting for him at the Otopeni Airport.

“I’m fine. I threw up nine times, I wanted to give up countless times, but I kept looking at your names written on my hand, and at the message I wanted to send to you. Now you have the fastest Romanian to cross the Channel as a sports teacher! I hug you all!” the Romanian wrote on his Facebook page soon after seeing his dream come true.

“Paul is now the fastest Romanian to cross the Channel in a time of 13 hours and 36 minutes (unratified). Well done!” the Channel Swimming Association also wrote on Facebook.

Paul Georgescu made his first attempt to cross the English Channel on August 1, but he had to give up after swimming 38 kilometers due to the bad weather and strong currents. He was aiming for a time under 8 hours, which would have made him the fastest swimmer across the Channel in the last ten years.

In August this year, Romanian librarian Avram Iancu also managed to swim across the English Channel at his fourth attempt. It took him almost 18 hours to complete this difficult challenge.

Australian-Romanian Dan Canta became the first Romanian to swim the English Channel in August 2015. Canta, who was only 16 at that time, completed the swim in 14 hours and 32 minutes.

Andrei Rosu also swam the Channel in 2015, as part of the Arc to Arch ultra triathlon. However, his performance hasn’t been officially recognized by the Channel Swimming Association, which validates the successful cross-channel, because he used a neoprene suit.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Paul Georgescu on Facebook)