Russian swimmers in eco-relay

LISTVYANKA, Russia: A group of Russians completed an icy swim across Lake Baikal in Siberia on Wednesday in an effort to draw attention to ecological threats facing the world’s largest freshwater lake.

The four men and one woman finished their continuous relay of 55-km spanning the width of the lake and ending near the Siberian city of Irkutsk. Each swimmer completed 30-minute stints in the water before another participant took over, a necessary precaution with water temperatures plunging as low as 9 degrees Celsius (48 Fahrenheit).