Neil Agius has posted his first message to supporters and following, the day after completing his world record-breaking swim between the island of Linosa and Malta.

Agius completed the mammoth 125.6km swim on Wednesday evening when he waded into Xlendi Bay, having set off 52 hours before from the Italian island of Linosa.

With that, the former Olympian broke the world record for the longest continuous, unassisted, current-neutral swim along a single-segment natural route in an ocean, sea or bay, which was previously set at 124.4km.

Taking to Facebook on Thursday, Agius said that he had managed to get a good eight to ten hours of sleep last night – even if he was hoping to get a bit more.

He said that he was experiencing some muscle pains, but that most of the discomfort is in his mouth, nose, and throat as a result of the sea-water.

“Yesterday was the end of a cycle –all the hard work and sacrifices not only from myself but also my team shined through because we aced it. We swam; we had a tough time with a lot of weather which was against us, but we came out on top – so yeah, really feeling good”, Agius said.

In a separate post, he looked back at his favourite moments from the previous night and thanked his crew and all those who had gone to Xlendi to welcome him back home.

The world record-setting swim was part of a campaign being run by the Wave of Change, an environmental activist group founded by Agius himself, which aims to raise awareness on the damage plastic pollution is doing to our oceans.

“If Neil can swim for two nights and two days, no stopping, no getting out of the water WE CAN ALL pick up six pieces of plastic and do a few reps of exercise,” his team said in the build-up to the swim.

This can be done by:

--- Picking up six pieces of plastic;
--- Posting a video of yourself on social media doing six repetitions of your favourite exercise with the pieces of plastic in the video;
--- Using #doublethewave and tag Wave Of Change Malta;
--- Tagging and nominating six people.