Oxford win Cross-Channel Relay
5 Members of OUSC; George Stannard, James Manning, Dan Manners, Naomi Vides and Tilly Ansell, and one from OUWPC, Steph Millin, were selected in early Hilary to take part in a swimming race against Cambridge. Unlike in Swimming Varsity, where each member of a relay does a 50m or 100m before handing over to the next swimmer- this swimming race consisted of swimmers racing for an hour each. Oh, and one more thing, instead of a pool, the English Channel.
7 months of preparation later, on the 4th of July, a bit after midnight, the team stepped on their boat, “Suva”, piloted by Neil Streeter, and began the journey along the coast to Folkstone beach. Up first was George, both the most and the least prepared on the team- he brought almonds, hand warmers and 4 beanies, amongst other things. What he didn’t remember, however, were his hat and his goggles.
Luckily the team had some spare, so when the boat stopped about 100m out from the beach, George was ready to dive into the 15 degree water and swim to the beach. In the pitch black, the klaxon went off at 12:37am, and the biannual 2016 Oxford vs Cambridge Channel Relay begun.
Guided only by the spotlight from the boat, George gained an early lead, with the Cambridge swimmers having firstly some goggle problems and secondly, problems finding his boat, at one point swimming towards ours instead. Other than that, the first leg went smoothly, and an hour later, Naomi dived into the dark and cold water, allowing George to finally grab only to the ladder at the back of the boat and climb out. Naomi, the only swimmer to also do the race 2 years ago, still unfortunately had issues with swimming in a straight line, occasionally swimming in a semicircle angling further and further away from the boat until she was actually headed back to England. The team quickly directly her back, and all was good. Only one further incident, an unknown object hit her, resulting in a loud scream. Luckily it wasn’t an evil pirate ghost dragging her down to the depths, so she kept going, straight(ish) and strong.
Next was James, Steph, Dan, then Tilly, all experiencing the different stages of the sunrise at sea. Coupled with our lack of sleep, and the boat swaying, it was really quite beautiful, emotional, some even described it as primal, being alone, just us, the world and the sun rising over it.
James did great, and didn’t even complain too much after he got out. Dan on the other hand, complained even whilst in the water, exclaiming that it couldn’t possibly be “only 35 minutes!”. Steph also did great, but the combination of feeling sick and nearly hypothermic got us all a bit worried when she curled up in a ball and didn’t move for quite a while after she got out. Fear not though, by the end of the race Steph had made a full recovery, wearing minimal clothes, and making good use of the French sun to work on her tan.
Tilly also put in a strong performance, despite the not so pleasant aroma of the boat toilet making her sick. We were ahead of Cambridge the whole way, and by the time everyone had done their first hour, we were about 0.9 miles ahead. The sun had fully risen by the time George dived in for his second swim.
George had a solid performance, although he seemed to get a bit bored at the end, meaning when his hour was up, Naomi had to swim a good 10m out to go round the back of him, and taking quite a while to get back to the boat.
France was well in sight, and with James up, we were hopeful we’d make it in less than 9 hours, to beat our time from 2 years ago of 9 hours and 2 minutes. It was close, and we couldn’t tell right up until the end, but finally 8 hours and 54 minutes of swimming later, James stood up on a French beach, to promptly collapse straight back onto it.
He managed to swim back to the boat, to lots of cheers and woops. Cambridge eventually finished in 9 hours and 28 minutes, making Oxford the 2016 Champions. We swum through jellyfish, sewage, blood, sweat and tears (okay, maybe only some of those are true), and returned to England tired, hungry, swaying a bit, but with a sense of accomplishment, and maybe a little bit more of that open water swimming bug. An incredible job done, in training, organising and swimming by both the Oxford and Cambridge team!
And for anyone who’s ever thought about open water swimming, it is of course cold, tough and cruel, but also equally wonderful, challenging and certainly a worthwhile pursuit, so maybe give it a go sometime…
