PANAJI
Bengaluru’s Deepika Rana emerged first in the second edition of the Delhivery Coastal Odyssey 2026, sea swimming challenge organised by the Goa Open water swimming club (GOWSC) in South Goa on Sunday. Deepika swam the distance of 20kms between the Valor and Zalor beaches in 9:12 hours.
The event had three formats for swimmers. The challenging 20km solo sea swim, a 2-person relay - where each swimmer swam 10 kms, and a 4-person relay - where each person swam 5 km. Deepika, who swam the 20km solo race, emerged first among all solo and relay swimmers who took part in this endurance event.
The event saw a total of 20 swimmers taking part from Goa, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad to earn the coveted title of Coastal Odyssey Challenger. These included Ironman triathlete couple, Milind Soman who took part in the 20 km swim, his wife, Ankita Konwar who took part in the 10km x 2 relay and Zarir Baliwala of Mumbai, English Channel relay swimmer.
Experienced swimmers from the “Swim Life Bangalore” club which included their coach, Satish Mata, Tejas Sati, Dr Santosh, Manish Jaswal, Danish Abdi and Vrushali Prasade, all English Channel relay swimmers also made their presence felt in Goan waters.
The local challenge came from Aamod Shirali, Panaji based law professor who completed the 20km race in style, while Justine Mellocastro and Ashwin Dalvi, were part of a 4 x 5km relay team. Justine, a former national swimming champion is making a comeback after 15 years.
Elias Patel, co-founder, GOWSC, the 10-year-old club building and promoting open water swimming in India said, “Coastal Odyssey is a test of a swimmer’s physical, emotional and mental fortitude to endure different variables like marine creatures, winds and currents.”
Goa Tourism, Drishti Marine, Sahasea, swim coach Tony Fernandes and Unived supported the event.
