THREE Jersey swimmers travelled to the eastern extremes of Europe to take part in an iconic trans-continental race.
Sally Minty-Gravett, Julia Morris and Robert Taylor were among 1,200 participants in the annual swim from Eceabat in Greece to Çanakkale in Turkey.
The stretch of water, known as the Dardanelles in Turkish or the Hellespont in Greek, was famously crossed by Lord Byron in 1810 and more recently sees one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes closed for the day so swimmers can attempt the crossing of just under three miles.
All three swimmers finished the race well inside the two-hour cut-off, with Mr Taylor clocking a time of 64 minutes, eight minutes ahead of both Ms Taylor and Mrs Minty-Gravett.
Not only did Mrs Minty-Gravett register the fastest time for her age group (65 to 69), but her achievement came on the anniversary of her first crossing of the English Channel in 1975 at the age of 18, and the same day she completed a double Channel crossing in 2016.
“30 August is a big day for me and it was great to do another major swim on that date and meet a great crowd of international swimmers – they estimated 29 countries were represented,” she said.
Including her double crossing eight years ago, Mrs Minty-Gravett has swum the English Channel eight times, completing the feat in her teens and during every subsequent decade.
Speaking after her most recent Channel crossing in August 2022, she said she planned to “put her feet up” and stick to “more leisurely swimming”, but that intention didn’t last long, and later this month she plans to swim the length of Lake Geneva in a relay team.
