I swam Eric the Eel's Olympic time, in his Malabo pool

Every Olympics has one. In Sydney in 2000 it was Eric Moussambani of Equatorial Guinea, Eric the Eel, who had learned to swim only months before and found himself alone in his heat of the hundred metres freestyle. He ground out the slowest swim in Olympic history, the whole stadium rising as he hauled himself down the final length, and won the world over by simply finishing.

A quarter of a century later, on the final leg of the rally, we landed in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, and found that the pool where he is said to have trained was right there. There was only ever going to be one outcome.

You cannot stand on that deck and not race the ghost of that swim. Eric's official time in Sydney was 1:52.72. By my own generous poolside stopwatch I touched in at 1:52.30, four-tenths of a second quicker, a result I intend to claim for the rest of my life. My friend Vaidas set himself a more realistic goal and met it in full: he did not drown.

It is a ridiculous thing to be proud of, an amateur's Olympic pace in an empty pool in a country most people cannot find. But that is exactly how I like to travel: you seek out the strange little corners, find the odd shrine to a man the world loved for trying, and give it a go yourself. Eric is the rare Olympian remembered for finishing last. The least I owed him was a lap of my own.

Where do I sign up for the next Olympics.