Durban-born swimmer Troy Prinsloo has splashed his way into the record books by breaking the record for the fastest swim between Robben Island and Cape Town.

The 27-year-old Olympic swimmer sped through the 7.4 kilometre open water swim yesterday in a time of one hour, 23 minutes and 52 seconds.

The previous record was held by a German man, who did the crossing around 10 minutes slower.

Prinsloo says the race is challenging, adding he is proud of his achievement.

"It's a very difficult swim because you can only do it in a speedo. The water temperature today [Thursday] was like 15.2 degrees; so it was still really cold," he said.

"[There's] lots of current, lots of wind. The first 200 to 300 metres is probably the hardest part, because you're swimming through quite a bit of kelp, so you're not really swimming, you're just kind of trying to get yourself through the seaweed.

"It's something that was very important to me, and something that I've wanted to do for a long time now." 

Prinsloo recently came second in the open-water Midmar Mile.

Article via Nadia Moore/East Coast Radio