Five open water swimmers from Birkirkara St. Joseph Sports Club will be taking part in a 1,400-kilometre swimming relay across the shores of Tunisia tomorrow.

This lung-sapping swimming marathon is the idea of renowned Tunisian long distance swimmer, Nejib Belhedi, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Tunisian Army, who decided to send the world a positive message about the region, following his country’s revolution of 2011 .

Since this relay won the World Open Water Performance of the Year, it attracted media coverage from all over the world.

Top open water swimmers from the five continents will be joining Belhedi in his quest for peace. It was a great honour for Birkirkara St Joseph Open Water swimmer Keith Bartolo (photo) to be personally invited by Belhedi himself to swim alongside him.

During the preliminary contacts, Bartolo described to the Tunisian authorities his club’s Open Water Swimming set up and it was agreed that a team of club open water swimmers accompany Bartolo in this extraordinary event.

The Birkirkara St Josesph swimmers making the trip are Keith Bartolo, national open water swimming champion, Roberto Demicoli, Samuel Attard, Gilbert Bartolo and Andrew Grech.