Munster Express Online

One lonely soul swimming the English Channel: six swimmers from Carrick, West Waterford and South Kilkenny will attempt the formidable task (in a relay format) this August.

Six swimmers from Carrick-on-Suir, Dungarvan and Hugginstown, County Kilkenny are in strict training to complete a relay swim of the English Channel in August.

The journey has already begun for the team Clare Morrissey, Grainne Burke, Maria Barry who are training in the Sean Kelly Swimming and Sports Centre, Carrick-on-Suir; Maeve Moran and Colette Enright training at the Clonea Leisure Centre, Dungarvan and Maura Murphy who trains at the Silversprings Leisure Centre in Cork.

TheY have called themselves ‘Stiletto Swimmers’ and Eilis Burns, Ireland’s top English Channel swim coach is training the team since last September and strict guidelines by the Channel Swimming and Piloting must be followed.

The swim is from Dover in England to Calais in France a straight-line journey of 35 kilometres but depending on tides and other natural elements working against swimmers, it will most likely be closer to 45 kilometres.

Each swimmer will swim an hour in relay form before being replaced by the next swimmer and so on until Calais is reached and should take altogether about 16 hours.

A tough challenge awaits the Stiletto Swimmers but hopefully they will be well prepared after eleven months of training.

The training consists of five sessions every week in the pool and one session at weekends in the sea in wetsuits until April and from April onwards it will be mostly in the sea but without swimsuits as these are not allowed in the Channel swim.

Kilkieran Cottage Restaurant is hosting a fundraising evening for the team on Sunday, March 14th at 6pm where for €50 you can enjoy a seven-course tasting menu meal with wine.

Anyone interested in obtaining tickets, please telephone Marie Barry at 087-2234910, Grainne Burke at 085-2703576 or Clare Morrissey at 086-8323378.