Wednesday, August 5, 2009

They Can't Just Do It Once

Anne Cleveland put together a list of English Channel multi-leg swimmers - that just expanded its membership by one this weekend.

To date, there have been 19 two-way swimmers and 3 three-way swimmers, including the newest member to the group, Lianne Llewellyn, who joined this exclusive club despite rough conditions.

The 27-year-old Liane of Denholme (shown on left) completed her double-crossing in 27 hours and 35 minutes.

English Channel Two-Way Swimmers
1. Antonio Abertondo (first, longest time) in 1961
2. Alison Streeter in 1983, 1992 and 1995
3. Kevin Murphy in 1970, 1975 and 1987
4. Philip Rush (fastest overall) in 1985
5. Suzie Maroney (fastest woman) in 1991
6. Irene Van Der Laan in 1983
7. Igor De Souza in 1997
8. Cynthia Nichols in 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1982
9. Osama Ahmed Momtaz in 1984
10. Paula Townley-Rivett in 1993
11. Jon Erikson in 1975 and 1979
12. Ted Erikson in 1965
13. Nora Toledano in 1994
14. Nick Adams (youngest) in 1995
15. Anne Cleveland (oldest) in 2004
16. Marcella MacDonald in 2001 and 2004
17. David Parcells in 2002
18. David Cech in 2006
19. Lianne Llewellyn in 2009

English Channel Three-Way Swimmers
1. Jon Erikson in 1981
2. Philip Rush in 1987
3. Alison Streeter in 1990

Lianne's first leg of her double-crossing started at 8 am this past Sunday and ended 11 hours and 17 minutes later. But the return - a 16-hour 18-minute ordeal - was challenging due to the difficult conditions.

According to the Evening Courier, her mother reported that "it was very choppy and very rough" while Liane agreed that the bad weather made the return trip very difficult, "It was a very tough swim. The hardest part for me was coming into Dover. I was exhausted. I'm so pleased I did it."

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