Swimmer in world record relay Channel bid

A former Bere Alston resident who has already swum the English Channel solo is joining three friends aiming for a world record crossing.

Olly White, formerly of Tavistock College and Tuckermarsh, and his three mates from Devon will be heading for Dover on Thursday, August 27, from where they will set off on their relay, subject to weather conditions, in the dark.

They will be working as a medley team with each swimmer specialising in a different stroke. To claim the world record they will have to beat the current time of 11 hours and 29 minutes.

Months of training at sea and in pools has given them the confidence that they can beat the record.

But it will be tough because they will be at the mercy of tides, current and weather conditions which, collectively could add hours to their effort.

The quartet, all dads, have known each other for many years, all having swum together with Exmouth Swimming and Life Saving Society and the Exe Masters Swimming Club.

Swimming butterfly, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke, they will each be in the water for an hour at a time, repeating the pattern until they reach France.

Olly White (breast stroke), now living in France, swam the Channel in 2005.

He said: “It is difficult to get us all together at the same time for training, but we meet when we can, two of us, sometimes three. Otherwise, we have been doing as much swimming as we can manage on our own, most days either in the pool or in the sea. We have tried to simulate crossing by swimming for an hour then waiting for three hours then getting back in again.”

The four of them know each other through the Exe Masters Swimming Club.

Olly added: “We are feeling very confident. We are all peaking at the right time and fingers crossed we are injury free. Getting injured is our main worry at our ages. But we have the speed in our team to break the record so long as the weather is on our side.”

Motivation for the swim centres around Ross (swimming butterfly) who lost his mum to cancer only a few weeks after diagnosis. They are raising money for Hospiscare Devon which supported her and her family.

The swim begins on the say-so of the pilot of the accompanying safety boat, who has vast experience and knows when the conditions are right.

Nik Haynes, 48, of Lympstone, will swim backstroke and held the cross-Channel backstroke time record for a while. Ross Szender,40, (butterfly), 40, from Cranbrook, Exeter, has represented Devon in his youth. Adam Tapp (crawl/freestyle), from Exmouth, has swum the length of Lake Windermere in five hours.

The team is supported by talented swimmer and massage therapist Heidi Bell-West whose great-great-great uncle was Capt Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the Channel.

The team has raised over £2,000 for Hospiscare. Their story and progress are online at Instagram (channelmedleyrelay2026) and on Facebook (channelmedleyrelay2026).