Hong Kong ‘Cold Standard’ competitors try to break three hour magic mark in swimming and running

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In marathon swimming and running, the magic number is three: a sub-three-hour 10-kilometre swim is as elusive as a sub-three-hour 42-kilometre run. The athlete who nails them both? Unheard of – until now.

The Sub-3 squared Marathon Club unites endurance athletes who have done those times in a calendar year. Steven Munatones, of the World Open Water Swimming Association, proposed the challenge in 2012 and no-one has yet been able to claim membership.

But that is set to change this weekend when five hardy souls take on the world’s first Sub-3 squared Marathon event in Hong Kong – the “Cold Standard”, comprising at least 10 kilometres of the Cold Half open-water swim on Saturday, followed by the Standard Chartered Marathon on Sunday.