In footage from theSuper League Triathlon, Vilaça is seen holding onto the seal while attempting to move it away from his arm and swim ashore.
In a video from the league, Vilaça said others were swimming at the beach at the time and he was just “unlucky” to swim towards the seal.
“When I saw it I kind of didn’t know what to do and it started swimming towards me, got very close and it kind of felt like a dog smelling me,” Vilaça said in a video interview with the league. “I tried to just slowly, without doing anything aggressive, push it slowly away.”
His approach was working until a “strong wave” came and pushed the athlete and the animal closer together. “I aggressively pushed it away then because it was really on me, and then it got scared and bit my arm and wouldn’t let go,” the athlete recalled.
After being bitten, Vilaça tried to grab the animal’s teeth and get them off him so that he could swim away. “I didn’t know what to do with the seal because I thought if I let go it would bite me again,” he said in the video.
He added, “I was holding its mouth so it wouldn’t bite me then I took a better look and it was a seal and I was like, ‘f—'”
Eventually, the athlete managed to get the seal of his arm and swim to shore to receive medical attention. Luckily, the bruises he sustained weren’t too deep. “So the wounds are not too bad,” he said, noting that his wetsuit protected his skin from too much damage. “It was only when I was grabbing the teeth from underneath and opening the mouth that’s when I got a few cuts on my hand,” he said.
Also in the video, the athlete said he wasn’t thinking about dying during the attack, “I was more thinking about surviving,” he said, smiling.
Since the accident, Vilaça shared Super League Triathlon’s video onInstagram. “Got the Seal of approval”…seems to be the joke of the day😅," he wrote jokingly in the caption.
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Also in the caption, Vilaça said that when he held the seal, it turned upside down. “Which later I got to know actually makes them go into a tonic immobility state,” he wrote, “which allowed me to slowly and safely swim back to shore!🌊”
He continued, “Either very lucky or very unlucky… still trying to figure that out. I am glad I am well, and good to race tomorrow!“The Super League Triathlon Malibuwill happen over the weekend on Sept. 17 and 18. Vilaça is one of the 19 men competing for the win.
“Sand, sketchy corners, big waves, seals and crazy triathletes!… a lot of action incoming!” he wrote in anotherInstagrampost.
source: people.com
