A French swimmer will [try / tried] to become the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean. Ben Lecomte, 51, set [on / off] from Japan on Tuesday on his superhuman task [of / for] crossing the ocean. It will take him more than six months to [compete / complete] the 9,000-km swim. He will have to swim for eight hours a day to reach his target [in / on] the west coast of the USA. He will also have to [farce / face] many dangers. There will be sharks, jellyfish, storms, [rough / roughly] seas, and very low water temperatures. He will also have to fight exhaustion and any injuries he picks [down / up] along the way. However, Mr Lecomte said: "The mental part is [much / many] more important than the physical. You have to [make / do] sure you always think about something positive."
Lecomte has been training for six years [for / to] take up this challenge. He has practised every [daily / day] during that time by swimming in the sea. This is to make sure he is [on / in] top physical condition. He has also been training his [head / mind] . It will be a very lonely swim and he needs to be mentally tough. Lecomte said he is [done / doing] the swim to raise awareness of climate change, the [effects / affects] of plastic rubbish in the ocean, and the effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster on the ocean. Scientists will also study his [bodily / body] to monitor how extreme exercise affects [the / their] heart. In 1998, Lecomte made the first solo trans-Atlantic swim. It took him 73 days to [cover / covering] the 6,400km. When he reached dry land, his first words were, "never [again / against] ".
