Cork’s Ross O'Sullivan to swim ‘across’ Scotland
Ross O’Sullivan, 26, who moved to Cardiff two years ago, started the 100km swim on Saturday and he hopes to have completed it within six days, two days ahead of the record. He wants to raise money for a children’s hospital.
“When I was in college, in Cork Institute of Technology, I started embracing the college lifestyle too much,” said Ross. “After being stuck in a rut for a while, I decided that I wanted to make a lifestyle change, so I started training for my first triathlon in 2012. Let’s just say I was in for a serious shock when I did my first race.
“I remember getting overtaken by a woman aged at least 70, on the run leg of my first triathlon, and it was then I realised that this is a very hard sport.
“So I trained and trained, but really only enjoyed doing the swimming part of the triathlon. So I stuck with swimming in the ocean, lakes, and rivers, back in Ireland.”
Since 2015, Ross started thinking about doing challenging swims.
“I love reading the stories about people who have taken on mammoth challenges in the past, and it’s something I want to get involved in myself,” he said.
“During the month of June, I swam 220 miles down Britain’s longest river, the River Severn.”
Ross, an engineer, spent 18 days swimming the Severn and he says it was “really tough”. However, the challenges will be even tougher in Scotland, where the temperature of the water will be far colder.
Ross is swimming from Fort William, in the southwest of Scotland, up to Inverness, through rivers, canals and three massive lochs, in aid of the children’s hospital in Cardiff.
During the journey, he will swim through the famous Loch Ness, which is about 37km in length.
See rossosullivan.com/swimming-across-scotland.
