‘I keep telling myself it’s a walk in the park’ – but Simon Holliday is swimming 45km around Hong Kong Island
Briton hoping to raise HK$1 million for his Splash Foundation, a charity providing free swimming lessons for the city’s under-resourced community
When preparing for a record-breaking swim around Hong Kong Island, getting stung by jellyfish should be the least of your worries.
“It will happen now and again,” said Simon Holliday, the 39-year-old expat aiming to become the first man to complete the 45-kilometre swim around Hong Kong Island.
“If it’s relentless stinging, you do feel it ... and you get these big red marks around your body when they wrap around you.
Holliday has until November 11 to prepare for the physical and psychological barriers he will face once setting off at Sai Wan Swimming Shed.
It will be the longest swim the Briton has ever embarked on as he looks to raise HK$1 million for his Splash Foundation – a charity which provides free swimming lessons for the city’s under-resourced community.
“Splash is in a critical stage of its development, and if we want to teach 5,000 people to swim by 2020, we need funds,” said Holliday, who swam from Hong Kong to Macau in 2014.