Slovenian defies beasts and bandits to swim Amazon

Slovenia:Slovenians are celebrating after compatriot Martin Strel defied deadly animals, tropical diseases and river bandits to become the first man to swim the Amazon.

Mr Strel (52) hopes his nine-week odyssey will also be recognised as the longest-ever swim by a human being, a record he has already broken three times by swimming Europe's Danube, the Mississippi in the US and then the Yangtze river in China.

The 5,265km (3,272 miles) slog down the Amazon, from Peru to the city of Belem on Brazil's Atlantic coast, was the toughest of them all, and Mr Strel was reportedly close to exhaustion when he finished the swim on Saturday.

The Slovenian covered about 80km (50 miles) each day, and sometimes swam at night, through murky, fast-flowing waters that are home to crocodiles, bull sharks, snakes and piranhas, and hide dangerous currents, whirlpools and disease-carrying parasites.

His support team included an armed guard to protect against possible attack from bandits who sometimes prey on boats in remote stretches of the river.

"He's hit point zero," Martin's son and project co-ordinator, Borut Strel, said on Saturday. "There will be a ceremony Sunday in Belem, but he finished today." Mr Strel's website said his final days in the Amazon were marred by dizziness, high blood pressure, diarrhoea, nausea and delirium, and he was wearing a cloth mask and wetsuit to protect him from sunburn and stinging creatures in the water.

"The finish has been the toughest moment so far," Mr Strel said late last week. "I've been swimming fewer kilometres as I get closer to the end. The ocean tides have a lot of influence on the river's currents, and sometimes they are so strong that I am pushed backward." Mr Strel, who lost 12 kilos during his swim, said he was glad to avoid a dangerous tidal surge called the pororoca, which can cause huge waves, and the candiru, or "toothpick fish", which swims into and lodges in bodily orifices and can only be removed by surgery.

It is not known when Mr Strel will return to Slovenia, or what his next undertaking will be. He ruled out a swim down the world's longest river, however, saying: "I am not going to do the Nile. It's long but not challenging enough, it is just a small creek. The Amazon is much more mighty."