Ice Bear does it; a record with a twist

New Delhi: Lewis Gordon Pugh lived up to his nickname 'Ice Bear' when he broke his own world record for the longest ice water swim.

It was a copybook effort, as he had to cross the distance in a cap, swimming trunk and goggles, according to the rules of the English Channel Swimming Association.

He swam for 1.2 kilometres inside the Norwegian mountains. The water temperature in the lake, about 300km northeast of Bergen, was just above zero degrees.

"This is the most extreme swim I have ever done. I thought today was very hard, much harder then the Arctic, much harder than Antarctica.

I think the big difference is that you are swimming in fresh water as opposed to sea water and you know it was close to zero degrees it was very challenging," Pugh said.

Last year Pugh swam 1,000 metres in 18 minutes in zero-degree centigrade waters near Antarctica.

And he is not only breaking records. He is rewriting science as well.

His love of the ice-cold water is part of a study by universities in South Africa, Norway and Finland.

"I don't think that the human body can handle much more then that. And right at the end I was at the extreme end of my physical capabilities, I got up and said to myself, no, I don't think there is much more which I can do."