PICTURES: Open water swimming club Scarborough Kingfishers retakes on two-way Loch Ness Swim after last attempt in 1983
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AN open water swimming club from England achieved a monster swim feat earlier this week.
A team of five swimmers, two crew members and two officials, most of whom were from Scarborough's Kingfishers swimming club, completed a two-way relay of Loch Ness between Sunday and Tuesday with a final time of 26 hours, 48 minutes and 4 seconds.
It was a Scarborough swimmer named David Morgan who was the first to complete a solo double crossing of the loch in 1983, setting an unbeaten record-time of 23 hours 4 minutes at the age of 20.
Kingfishers' open water coach, Paula Ambury, said her team was aiming to break the record but were caught by surprise by a technical fault on Sunday.
She said: "Our boat broke down just three hours before we were due to start. I don't know how, someone must have been watching down from somewhere, but in 45 minutes we managed to find another boat and a pilot. So, the swim still went ahead.
The swimming team was formed by Georgia Amison, Maddy Adams, Bill Hitchcock, Jane Sedman and Scottish open water swimming champion, Colleen Blair.
This attempt had been three years in the planning and was originally organised for 2019.
"The swimmers were amazing, said Ms Ambury. "We would have smashed the record if the boat hadn't broken.
"However, it's not about the time, we really just wanted to do it, and we did. But it was so dark - I have never been anywhere as dark.
"This is the coldest water you can swim in, and the darkest. Even on the sunniest day, it would still be so dark underwater.
"It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to help bring this swim to its conclusion."
Maddy Adams (18), the youngest swimmer of the team, said: "It was an absolutely amazing experience and being able to finish it was even more special for me.
"This challenge was great to take my head off exam results day (18 August), which has been brilliant."
"It was quite weird, my shoulder was giving up and at a point I wasn't sure whether I would be able to finish it, but I did a little sprint and thankfully got to the end.
"I love swimming and it's taking me everywhere, and this is such a beautiful part of the world!"
