Childhood Friends Break Channel Swimming Record

Two childhood friends have broken the record for the two-way English Channel relay in aid of a military charity.

John Myatt and Mark Leighton both have friends and family in the Armed Forces and learned their swimming skills together as youngsters, and announced their goal of breaking the Channel record last year.

In 2015, the pair swam the English Channel one-way, resulting in the third-fasted time in history for a one-way two-man swim

Their love of water and natural sense of competition led them to swim across the English Channel in one direction, resulting in the third fastest time in history for a one-way two-man swim of the Channel.

Now the pair have doubled the distance, completing a two-way relay in aid of Rugby for Heroes.

Although neither have served in the forces, they both have friends and family who do.

Swimming in one-hour stints, they battled sea sickness, the cold, swimming at night, and jellyfish. 

Mark said: "I was getting nervous because I didn't want to get stung."

Eventually, however, he said that the stings helped to wake him up. 

Once they had finished the relay, the pair experienced "sea legs" for the first time.

"I'd never had sea legs before," John said.

"We were just trying to find a cafe for somewhere to have breakfast, but when we were walking, it was really weird."

The swimmers finished the relay in an impressive 22 hours and 49 minutes, although they have to wait for official ratification of their time.

They do know, however, that they have beaten the previous record of 31 hours and 28 minutes set by two women, the "Gangster Grannies", in 2016.