Ansamed

(ANSAmed) - VILLASIMIUS (CAGLIARI) - The support boat didn't last the distance, but he did. Giovanni Brancato has beaten his personal best and set a new world record for swimming across high seas. The 55-year old nutritionist from Messina, swam 250 kilometres in seven days between the Tunisian city of Bizerte and Villasimius, in Sardinia. This translates itself into a daily average of 30 kilometres in 11 hours, at a rhythm, of 54 strokes per minute.

This morning, upon reaching the shores of Sardinia, Brancato spoke to journalists. ''It's a dream I have had for some time, I need to pinch myself to make sure it's actually happened. I was already thinking about it when I reached dry land two years ago at the end of my record Corsica-Alassio crossing, which I have just beaten.

Now I could even say that that was training for this. While I was finishing this today, I was swimming and already thinking about the next one: I have a sea-land-sea idea, but I will talk about it when I have ''digested'' this achievement, the taste of which, like a drug addict, leaves me wanting more. For the moment, let me enjoy being back with my family: during the crossing I was thinking about them intensely and the success that could reflect upon them. It's a good example for them and for all young people. Jesus said that the younger ones are ''the salt of the earth'', I would add that they are the salt of every drop in the sea''.

As soon as he was about to reach the shore, a ''little mermaid'' dived in to greet him: his daughter Margherita, 13. ''He is mad but that's one of the reasons we love him,'' she said emotionally, ''it's not always easy but champions and racehorses will never cease to amaze us: it's wonderful to know that''. On top of a whole host of fans, the mayor of Villasimius, Salvatore Sanna, was also there to greet him, as well as a some assessors.

Brancato is not new to such achievements. In July 2008, he swam 145 kilometres in 4 days between Corsica (Cap Corse) and Liguria (Alassio). What about his diet? ''There is no alchemy,'' he explains, ''just healthy natural simplicity. While I am swimming, I drink large amounts of almond milk, pear juice and pomegranate, melting chocolate, tonic water. In the evening, on the boat, I eat pasta with extra virgin olive oil and sea-bass steaks that I fished myself in the Aeolian islands before leaving.

''My only exotic allowance is the fruit of the baobab,'' he confesses, ''the gigantic African elephant tree, which were obtained specially by my friend Vincenzo Leone''. (ANSAmed).