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ESPSpainSport:SwimmingDavid Meca Medina is a Spanish open water swimmer born in Sabadell on 1 February 1974. His own biography describes taking up swimming as a child on medical advice, then moving to the United States and studying at the University of Southern California. His competitive career included championship races as well as separately organised endurance challenges.
World Aquatics records Meca's 10-kilometre gold at the 2000 open water world championships in Honolulu, alongside silver medals over five and 25 kilometres. He won the 25-kilometre title at the 2005 World Championships in Montreal. These dated results provide a firmer account of his championship achievements than the broad title totals sometimes used in promotional biographies.
Meca's England-to-France Channel crossings are recorded on 10 August 2004 and 29 August 2005. The Channel Swimming Association records 7 hours 46 minutes and 7 hours 22 minutes respectively, with fastest-solo and fastest-man awards in both seasons. The historical records name Reg Brickell Jr as pilot. Meca's website publishes different times in places; those discrepancies remain visible with the two crossings.
His ambitions also extended beyond the Channel. His own account describes swimming from Jávea on mainland Spain to Ibiza over 4–5 January 2006. That challenge belongs to his wider endurance career and is kept separate from his two ratified Channel solos.
Two Channel solos below eight hours · world open water champion
Also recorded as David Meca Medina.
Crossing details, recordings & verificationSolo swim
Tuesday, 10 August 2004 (recorded swim date)
England → France
CSA records 7:46; Meca's challenges page gives 7:40 for 2004. Both values are retained.
Elapsed time · 7h 46m
Start clock · Clock time not confirmed
Finish clock · Clock time not confirmed
Sources disagree · See the crossing record for qualifications and supporting evidence.
Solo swim
Monday, 29 August 2005 (recorded swim date)
England → France
CSA records 7:22, also used on Meca's challenges page; his biography instead gives 7:21.
Elapsed time · 7h 22m
Start clock · Clock time not confirmed
Finish clock · Clock time not confirmed
Sources disagree · See the crossing record for qualifications and supporting evidence.
Thursday, 2 November 2000
World Aquatics lists his Honolulu open water gold medal.
Tuesday, 10 August 2004
CSA records a 7:46 England-to-France crossing; the athlete's challenges page gives a conflicting 7:40.
Saturday, 23 July 2005
Won the Montreal World Championships gold, as recorded by World Aquatics.
Monday, 29 August 2005
CSA records 7:22; the official biography gives a conflicting 7:21.
January 2006
His website recounts the crossing over 4–5 January 2006.
Achievements update from recorded results. A tick means the supporting results are verified.
No eligible completed results are linked yet. Link a completed result to start the achievement collection.
First recorded finish
1 more finish needed
0 of 1 recorded
Selected swimming performances appear in the English Channel record above.
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