The first
Capt. Matthew Webb was the first person to swim English Channel without artificial aids in 1875, it took him 21 hours (he blames the French tides for his time which by modern standards is long).
The challenge
- 24 miles (and then some ….)
- 03.00am start, first swimmer will have to swim in the dark
- Suit, goggles, grease and cap only
- No wetsuits & no ipods!
- Touch the boat and it’s all over – disqualified
The youngest solo (before new rules, see below)
- Thomas Gregory
- 1988
- 11 years and 336 days
- 11 hrs 54 mins
1994 produced New Rules
- No solo swimmers under 16 yrs
- No relays under 12 yrs
Youngest Junior Relay Teams EVER
- 1972 – Eltham Training and Swimming Club – average age of 12 yrs 165 days
- 2007 – Colorado Open Water Swimmers – average age of 12 yrs 158 days (inadvertently claimed the World Record in error)
but the real boys to beat …
- 1968 – Monson Swimming Club, Royal Tunbridge Wells – average age of 12 yrs 120 days
The Tunbridge Wells boys are now 54 year old men …. so surely time to hand the record over boys! News Flash: Peter Chapman, who swam in position number 4 on that world record breaking team, has very generously sent BEST a good luck message and a reminder that if BEST is going to beat MONSON then our team will have to train REALLY hard! The Monson boys each swam 130 miles in the months leading up to their attempt.
