{"id":608999,"date":"2026-08-30T07:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T07:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/608999\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T07:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T07:04:13","slug":"donegal-swimmers-click-with-dolphins-during-historic-bay-crossing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/608999\/","title":{"rendered":"Donegal swimmers click with dolphins during historic bay crossing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two Donegal swimmers have made a dream a reality by completing what is believed to be the first breaststroke crossing of Donegal Bay.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah O\u2019Malley Daly from Ballyshannon and Martin McDevitt from Rossnowlagh swam 11.6km from Ballysaggart Pier to Creevy Pier in five hours, 11 minutes and 11 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Although swimmers have crossed the bay before, there is no known record of anyone completing the challenge using breaststroke.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah and Martin took on the crossing on Sunday 23rd August after months of planning, lengthy training sessions and practice swims with their volunteer crew and support team.<\/p>\n<p>Calm weather and favourable tides provided the perfect opportunity to make their attempt.<\/p>\n<p>They dodged lion\u2019s mane jellyfish, endured several stings and even encountered a playful pod of dolphins before emerging triumphantly from the water at Creevy Pier.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-647362 in-content-img not-prose w-full\" height=\"565\" width=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/donegal-swimmers-click-with-dolphins-during-historic-bay-crossing.jpeg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-serif font-normal text-base leading-6 text-tertiary not-prose\"> Breaststroke swimmers Sarah O\u2019Malley Daly and Martin McDevitt were in flippin\u2019 great company during their challenge last Sunday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Donegal swimmers have made a dream a reality by completing what is believed to be the first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-608999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}