鹿兒島市的清水小學和松原小學分別於1917年、1926年開始，每年組織學生參加，參賽的小學生們必須從櫻島出發游過四公里到達對岸。兩個多小時的長距離游泳要求小選手們具備堅強的意志，這趟與大海和自己抗爭的艱苦征途對每個孩子來說都是難能可貴的人生歷練。

In Kagoshima, a city in the far west of Japan, Shimizu elementary school is holding an annual sports event that is quite amazing. Thereby fourth graders and above swim together with their teachers through the bay over a distance of 4.2 km. The kids join voluntarily training for this event and during the swim in the bay they are always accompanied by boats in case that one looses his/her energy or needs other support. The performance of the kids is even more astonishing when one thinks that the swim in an Ironman competition is 3.8km, but the 9-12 year old boys and girls swim contiuously over a distance that exceeds that by 4000 m. Here‘s a report with some pictures in Japanese.

資料及照片來源：

http://www.seadvd.com/redirect.php?fid=7&tid=99600&goto=nextoldset

http://hobiger.org/blog/2011/08/09/the-long-distance-swimming-kids-from-kagoshima/

http://shimizu-enei.blog.ocn.ne.jp/blog/

http://tw.123rf.com/photo_6890573_kagoshima-city-japan-july-1-2007-elementary-school-students-swimming-together-in-practice-for-a-4km-.html