Josh Gammon and Tom Dean help British team go close to English Channel relay world record while raising thousands for RLSS UK
University of Bath-based swimmer Josh Gammon helped a six-strong English Channel relay team led by triple Olympic Champion Tom Dean set a new British record and raise more than £8,000 for the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) UK.
The team, competing under the banner of Spirit of Great Britain, swam the 38,624 metres between Shakespeare Beach, near Dover, and Cap Gris-Nez in France in 6hrs 55mins – just three minutes shy of breaking a world record that has stood for 36 years.
Dean, a RLSS UK Ambassador and former University of Bath sporting scholar, was fifth into the water after Hector Pardoe, George Taplin, Tobias Robinson and Dan Jarvis had got the team’s record attempt off to a strong start.
He then handed over to Gammon, another former Bath scholar who trains at the University with the Aquatics GB Bath Performance Centre. No stranger to open-water swimming after growing up near the Devon coast, the British butterfly champion produced another fast hour of swimming as the Brits pulled away from the other competing teams.
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The only question now was whether they would beat the world record but, despite Pardoe’s best efforts in jellyfish-infested waters, a strong incoming tide meant they fell just short. However, they had broken the British record, which was previously set in 1981, and raised thousands of pounds towards the RLSS water safety education campaign for children.
Donations are still being accepted – click here to find out more.
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Pictured top: (From left) Hector Pardoe, Dan Jervis, Tobias Robinson, Josh Gammon, George Taplin and Tom Dean. CREDIT: Marc Aspland.
