On August 29 2007, Bulgaria’s Interior Minister Roumen Petkov will present an award to marathon swimmer Petar Stoychev for breaking the record of crossing the English Channel.

It took Stoychev six hours 57 minutes and 50 seconds to swim across the strait, Focus news agency reported.

Stoychev is officially an employee of the Interior Ministry.

The swimmer said that the Channel crossing was “very difficult as both mental and physical pressure”.

After the crossing of the Channel, his body temperature dropped to 31.6 degrees Celsius, he said.

The wait for the right weather conditions was also difficult.

Stoychev broke the world record on August 24 2007 and became the first man to swim the distance in under seven hours.