Matt Wardle's Channel Swim 07

“Gutted” was the only words Matt Wardle could find to describe the events of the day or more precisely the night he made his attempt at the channel.

Approaching the time, confidence was high as Matt had completed his qualification swim of 15 miles in 6 and a half hours a few weeks before hand. He had also won the Long Distance Swimming Associations Champion of Champions event at Dover Harbour not long after that. With a few more training sessions under his belt all he had to do was wait for the call from his pilot.

The call eventually came and the date was set for the 14th of July with a start time of midday. The Force 7 winds that had been forecast, were now predicted to drop. As midday approached the wind showed no signs of slowing so a rescheduled time of 8pm was established. The wind however failed to read the script or more importantly it's watch and did not die off until around 10pm.

The next high tide was due at 12. After greasing up, attaching the light sticks and swimming to the beach Matt started his attempt on the stroke midnight. The water temperature was a mere 13°c and the conditions were still a little choppy. The first hour proved to be testing, swimming in pitch black, unable to see where the waves were coming with a few catching him when he wasn't expecting them. As time went on the sea became calmer and Matt was able to settle into his anticipated pace and stroke rate.

Just when things were looking to have taken a turn for the better, the first signs of what was to eventually prove to be fatal to the swim started to show. Matt started to develop cramps in his back, forcing him to ease off the strength he could apply to each pull. It became increasingly obvious that this was a problem that he was not going to be able to swim through. At around 4.30am just as the sun began to rise with nearly half the distance completed, Matt finally had to concede defeat as his back went into spasm and he reluctantly had to return to the boat.

Some hours later when the team were packed up and driving out of Dover the heavens opened and thunder storm sweep over them and off into the channel. Maybe everything does happen for a reason after all!

Matt remains philosophical about the whole affair and may well have another crack at it next year. If he does we hope gods of the sea serve him a larger slice of good luck than they did this year.

20/07/07