Cape swimmers Channel their efforts
COMPLETING the English Channel is like doing the Everest of open-water swimming.
This is how Cape Town duo Samantha Whelpton, 33, and Howard Warrington, 53, described their achievement.
The English Channel is one of the toughest long-distance swims in the world because of water temperature and tides. The shortest distance between the English and French coasts is 35km, but the effects of the tides mean that swim tracks will be longer than this.
Whelpton from Durbanville has been swimming in the Cape Town seas for the past four years. She has completed the Robben Island stretch, the Cape Point stretch and the Ironman Triathlon, one of a series of long-distance triathlon races. “After moving to Cape Town I grew to love the sea and became climatised to the water. I fell in love with it and the swimming became an addiction.”
Throughout winter Whelpton trained in Sea Point for the English Channel.
“Swimming the English Channel was a lifelong dream. It became a personal journey where I pushed myself and as the distance got a little bit further and the water became a little bit colder I had to keep a positive mind.
“Training for the Channel had been hardest on the mind, for me,” she said.
Whelpton, did the Channel on August 3 in 11 hours and 23 minutes.
Warrington, from Somerset West, also had a few endurance events and ultra distances including; Iron Man, and had swam from Robben Island to Blaauwberg 28 times.
“The English channel was a dream for many years,” he said.