Ely's Swimmers Succeed in 'Channel Sprint'
- sponsored relay event completed 21 miles in under two hours -

Nearly sixty Ely Swimming Club members and supporters succeeded in their biggest challenge yet just before Christmas. On Wednesday 19th December the team swam the equivalent distance across the English Channel in under two hours.

The relay event was a triumph of organisation, as it involved four relay teams aged from 7 to over 70. In order to achieve the goal of 21 miles (the distance from the UK to France across the Channel) in the two hour deadline, swimmers had to average 25m in 20 seconds.

After a short poolside warm-up, the teams set off together and completed the distance in just under 1 hour 50 minutes. The sponsor money raised will go towards more pool time and coaching staff in order to open Club places up to more members.

Chris Howard, the Chairman of the City of Ely Swimming Club, commented:  "This was by far our biggest challenge yet. All year our swimmers have trained hard and achieved consistently improved times, but this sustained sprint format was something new for us. Every single participant gave it their all, the team spirit was quite astonishing - I was very proud of every single swimmer. We have not yet received all the sponsor money in, but several members have already raised over £100 pounds each, so it looks as if we will soon be making an announcement about expanding the Club with even more members."