Swimming through “ferocious” waters on the open sea, a relay team of 12-year-olds from Colorado on Thursday became world-record holders after traversing the English Channel.
The six are the youngest relay swimmers to cross the 21-mile route across the Strait of Dover, says their coach. The first recorded solo crossing was in 1875.
Three boys and three girls – Sara Nash, Maggie Cyr, Kianna Lee, Wyatt Oerman, Tim Soderlund and Erik Biernat – overcame choppy seas to swim from Dover, England, to Cap Griz Nez, France, in 9 hours and 58 minutes, a world record for swimmers their age, according to assistant coach Jack Nuanes. Swimmers must be at least 12 years old to cross the channel in an officially recognized swim. The fastest four-person adult relay team, by comparison, took 8 hours and 41 minutes.
The team is a collection of swimmers from Broomfield, Boulder, Centennial and Aurora.
“It was touch-and-go for a while,” Voni Oerman, the team’s coach, said from a dock near Canterbury, England, after 9 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time, a few hours after the finish. “There was a ferocious current and a lot of turbulence. It was a big adventure. And they really rose to the occasion. It was a leap of faith in a lot of ways.”
The channel swim has been completed by 1,171 people since Britain’s Matthew Webb first did it in 1875. Webb, then 27, crossed by himself in 21 hours and 45 minutes on his second attempt. American Gertrude Ederle in 1926 became the first woman to cross the channel. Her time was 14 hours and 30 seconds.
The Colorado team took turns in a relay of one-hour legs. They had hoped to finish in 15 to 18 hours. They slashed their expected time by at least a third.
“It went great and it was really fun,” Nash said. “But we had these monstrous waves that were attacking us from every end. It was hard.”
Wyatt Oerman swam the first leg from the English shore. Then, after an hour, another swimmer joined the relay from a boat. Soderlund swam the final leg before Cyr swam the final 25 yards. Nash, Oerman, Soderlund and Lee each swam two one-hour legs.
Jellyfish and huge waves
“It was so much fun,” said Wyatt Oerman, who already holds the record for youngest person to swim without a wetsuit from Alcatraz Island to the San Francisco Bay. “It’s nice to say you have a world record.”
An official from the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation was with the team to record the finish time and to make sure rules were followed. They were not allowed to touch each other in the water, and each swimmer was required to swim past the next swimmer in the relay. They were allowed only swimsuits and goggles – no wet suits.The temperature in Dover on Thursday reached a high of 64 degrees, according to the BBC.
Lee, who swam a second leg despite a bout of seasicknes, said: “All the waves were sloshing back and forth. They were huge. And I kept swimming into seaweed and jellyfish. I was sick, so it didn’t hit me right away that we’d actually crossed the channel. But once I got to think about it, I was really excited.”
The team returns to Colorado early next week.
Staff writer Nick Groke can be reached at 303-954-1015 or ngroke@denverpost.com.
