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Each competitor swam 5km
On a dark, cold miserable Wednesday 30 November this year, amongst 'Force 6, 15ft swell' and a maximum sea surface temperature of just 8 degrees C, elite athletes from the Royal Engineers Troop Commanders Course 143 challenged a robust BEW team in a relay swim race covering the 22 mile distance across English Channel between Dover & Calais.
Two teams from the Royal Engineers Troop Commanders Course and a combined 3 RSME/BEW team covered the crossing as fast as they could whilst raising £750 in support of the Army Benevolent Fund. At this time of year, however, such a challenge was deemed impossible unaided, due largely to the weather, sea temperature, and volume of Christmas traffic between the ports. To combat this, all three teams settled for completing the 22 miles in the slightly more hospitable surrounds of Gibraltar Barracks 25m swimming pool, although with authentic lifeguard support from Captain Rees and with Baywatch anthems blasting from the speakers, any supporter could easily have been mistaken.
As the start whistle blew, and under the close supervision of Colonel Paul Thomas from the Army Benevolent Fund, the three teams each consisting of 7 members began the gruelling task of swimming 1408 lengths between them, which worked out as some 202 lengths or 5km each! The competition was heated from the beginning, with the Battlefield Engineering Wing providing some seasoned veterans, but nothing could stop the younger marauding swimmers of the Troop Commanders Course, with 2Lt Jason Buchanan finishing after only 1 hour 29 minutes and 2Lt Clo O'Neill being the first female to finish in 1 hour 43 minutes.
The combined team time for the winning team was blown overboard as the heated race drew to a close. In the end RETCC 143 'A' Team won by less than a minute over the Battlefield Engineering Wing.
Capt Rees & 2Lt Cameron
