The second Cheadle Channel Challenge took place overnight in School from 7.30pm Saturday night until 8am Sunday morning. The event consisted of swimming the shortest distance of the English Channel in the School pool as a team throughout the night. This year the students were swimming to fundraise for Sports Relief.
There were four teams which included 11 staff and 36 students from Year 7 all the way to Lower Sixth. The challenge is a gruesome one as not only is achieving a minimum of 60 lengths in half an hour a difficult one, the participants are repeating this feat 3 times throughout the night with 3 hours in between each stint to try and get some sleep. Needless to say, there was not much sleep to be had at all despite the new Sixth Form Centre making an excellent sleepover room. The adrenaline was flowing too freely and students just weren’t feeling sleepy.
Each team needed to complete 1479.5 lengths of the pool and we all managed it. The first team to cross the Channel did so at 5.50am
Mrs Vernon said: “I was so impressed with not only the swimming ability of the pupils that took part, but also the resilience that they showed when the going got tough for their swim in the middle of the night. Nobody gave up and some pupils even amassed their greatest amount of lengths in the small hours!
“I want to thank everyone who took part, but also all the staff that either swam or helped with supervision, because without them taking part the event could not run. We are raising money for Sport Relief and so far we have £1399.82 but there is still a lot of sponsor money outstanding at this stage.
“Congratulations to Jacob Atkinson who broke his own record of 107 lengths in 30 minutes from the last Cheadle Channel Challenge with an astounding 115 lengths this time around.
“I feel it will be some time before that record is broken again. Sofia Hankey was the top scorer in 30 mins for the girls with 90 lengths, a very impressive achievement.”
Sofia said: “Prior to the Cheadle Channel challenge we all participated in a practice at school where we were all checking to make sure we were able to achieve our desired amount of lengths in preparation for the challenge. However, out of School I swim regularly at Marple Swimming club and in the weeks coming up to the challenge I made sure I was concentrating on pacing myself so when it came to it I was fully prepared.
“I really enjoyed myself whilst doing the challenge. It was a great way to bond with other people who share the same interests as myself. It was an amazing experience sleeping in the Sixth Form Centre but it wasn’t quite as fun when we had to be woken up at 3am. Although the early hours were gruelling overall I found that it was a very worthwhile experience which I will remember for many years to come.
“I believe that Sports Relief is a very worthy cause and I was delighted to be able to contribute and fundraise for it.”
You can still donate to Sports Relief via Parent Pay.
