A final splash

For Abdel-Latif Abu Heif no wave was too high or current too strong. Nashwa Abdel-Tawab remembers a man who dominated the sport of long-distance swimming for more than two decades

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Abu Heif receiving the Swimmer of the Century award in 2001 from the International Long-Distance Swimming Federation

"Abu Heif's name will be remembered for years to come," says sports commentator Hassan El-Mistikawi. "He left no body of water, whether fresh or salt, unchallenged. Following his retirement, long-distance swimming as a sport sank into oblivion in Egypt. His death is a great loss."

Abdel-Latif Abu Heif, who died last Monday at the age of 79, had battled long against illness though it did not prevent him from swimming. He could be found almost daily in the pool at Cairo's Gezira Sporting Club, performing water aerobics before retiring to the poolside to crack jokes with friends else read a newspaper.

One of the all time greats in the world of long-distance swimming, Abu Heif was a member of the Egyptian team of swimmers who came to be known as the "Nile Crocodiles".

His achievements excited the respect and acclaim of the public in his home country, where streets and buildings were named after him. Outside Egypt he was acknowledged as an extraordinary phenomenon. In 2001 the International Long-Distance Swimming Federation named Abu Heif the swimmer of the century. It was Egypt's final honour in a sport that Abu Heif dominated for many years. The American International Union of Long- Distance Swimmers had already declared him the greatest swimmer of all time, reflecting a series of astonishing victories that spanned 25 years.

If there was ever any doubt as to whether or not a race could be completed owing to weather conditions Abu Heif would erase it, battling the elements all the way to the finishing line. There is too little space here to list all the races he won -- a few will have to suffice, along with the observation that his career was, quite literally, death defying.

Abu Heif first finished the 60-mile Lake Michigan Crossing in 1963, spending 34 hours 45 minutes in the chilly 52 degree Fahrenheit water. Once again Abu Heif had taken himself to the limit and recovered. A year earlier, in 1962, he had spent over nine hours in the water to complete the 23-mile Mar Del Plata swim in Argentina.

Between 1953 and 1972 he competed in over 68 international races of between 30 to 80 kilometres. In 1964, 1965 and again in 1968 he was the World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation Champion, successfully completing the circuit of races held in Canada, the United States, Italy and South America.

Abu Heif won the Montreal, a relay race which he won alone after swimming for 28 hours after his Italian partner fell ill. And in 1975, having financed the trip himself, he finally won the Rio de la Plata. At 250km, beginning in Rosario and ending in Buenos Aires, it took over 60 hours of swimming during which the local media and crowds dubbed him "cocco" (the darling).

Abu Heif was born on 30 January 1929 in Alexandria, the eighth of 15 children. As a child he was taken to the cinema where he saw former Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller playing Tarzan. He decided there and then to become a swimmer and at the age of nine, when he won his first cup for Alexandria, his life as a crocodile had begun.

Abu Heif received his secondary education at Eton and then Sandhurst Military Academy in England. He served in the Egyptian army attaining the rank of colonel in the border control forces.

Abu Heif's generosity was as legendary as his prowess in the water. He donated his prize money from cross- channel Calais-Dover race to the family of a British swimmer who had drowned while attempting a solo crossing of the channel. Similarly, he donated the prize money from the St Nazaire race to a French swimmer paralysed after an accident. In Lebanon he rescued the impoverished Federation of Swimmers when he stepped in to settle everyone's hotel bill.

Abu Heif is survived by his wife Manar, a former champion horse racer and opera singer, and a son, Nasser, who is Egypt's Auto Cross Champion. Manar still lives in the apartment bursting with trophies won by her husband as he established himself as the greatest marathon swimmer in the history of the sport, setting the standards for all of today's open water swimmers.