At around 5.25 pm on Saturday, Adrian, Colin, Kate, Meg, Neil and Russell, better known as The Aspire Sharks, successfully completed their 13 hours and 25 minute crossing of the English Channel, the first of five Aspire teams attempting to swim The Channel this summer.

Having swum in choppy conditions with rain some of the way, their pilot Chris Osmond described them “as proper Channel swimmers” - clearly the months of dedication and training had paid off.  They would have completed their epic swim in an even quicker time had they not been forced to alter course when faced with a large oil tanker heading straight for them – it added about an hour to the crossing with lots of swimming parallel to the coast. Team leader, Beth Malin, completed the last 200m to the shore, something of a warm up as she is part of Team Penguin due to swim later this month.

Congratulations to The Sharks on their fantastic achievement and good luck to The Marlins who are up next!

If you are interested in joining one of the Aspire Real Channel Swim boats in 2012 then email Andrew or give him a call on 020 8420 8951.