Channel Swimming Season

Thanks to technology and the right connections, there is news everday this time of year!

Important News from this year:

Queen of The Channel, Alison Streeter continues her vow to swim an English Channel crossing for each year of her life. Now at number 43 after a successful cross on July 24th!
Mike Read swam his 33rd crossing July 27th and is now the King of The Channel, a title he has shared off and on again with Britain's Kevin Murphy.
A new "must have book" for open water swimmers by The Queen of The Seas, Lynne Cox, has finally been published. Swimming to Antarctica. Get it. You won't be sorry. It is unparalled and even your non-swimming friends will love it!Christof Wandratsch announces he will attempt to break The English Channel crossing record again this year. He lists a set of dates September 4-10 as his target tide. In 2002, Wandratsch narrowly missed the 20 year old record with a time of 7 hours 19 minutes and 48 seconds. That was just two minutes short of the world record, set in 1994 by American Chad Hundeby.
The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team Swimmers now have 32 English Channel crossings on their record. Karteek Clarke added #32 on July 28th.
Channel Swimmers from Ireland... yes and alot of them! 4 relays of Irish swimmers have crossed The Channel already this 2004 season!
Many tributes are being offered this year to Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim The English Channel. Miss Ederle passed late last year at age 98. August 6, 1926 at the age of 20, she crossed The Channel in the most incredible feat for a woman yet. The time of 14 hours, 31 minutes was the fastest yet, for any man also. A 13.5 million dollar park project which includes The Ederle Terrace has been opened in the SCMT Swimmer's home base of Queens, New York.

That is a bit of catch-up in the world of English Channel swim news this year. I'll keep you posted!

Wishing you all warm and peaceful waters... Ahelee.

Cross-posted from

Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team articles - more articles

About the author:

Tejvan organises short-distance running and cycling races for the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in his home city of Oxford. He is also a very good cyclist, having won the National hill climb championships in 2013 and finished 3rd in the National 100 Mile Time Trials in 2014.

In the 27th edition of the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence Race, Tswi Wen-Ya attained a new women's world record for the 3100 Mile Race, in a time of 45 days +12:28:44. The diminutive runner from Taiwan, overcame tiredness, heavy rain and numerous physical challenges to set this remarkable new record which involved running an average of 68 miles for 45 days straight. After a short victory celebration, she continued to set a new world record for 5,000km in a time of 45 days +14:56:42.

The race saw fourteen runners take to the start line, and each runner had their own unique experience of self-transcendence. The first place finisher was Andrea Marcato from Italy. it was his fourth consecutive 1st place in the 3100 Mile Race and comes after an amazing year which included two ten day races and other ultra-distance events. His time of 43 days+13:33:23 was not a personal record, but he joins the Finnish men's world record holder Ashprihanal Aalto for being the only runner with four consecutive first places.

Another notable achievement was 2nd place, Lo Wei-Ming (Taiwan) who covered 17 of the last 19 days in 71+ miles, including 14 days over 72.4 and 74.3 miles, with two days wrangling 79.4 miles. He averaged 68.343 miles/ 109.986 km per day. He then completed the 13 extra laps needed to reach 5000km in a sparkling time of 45 days+ 11:16:51. These top personal results are National records and Asian records.

The race was inspired by Sri Chinmoy who saw distance running as a unique challenge to bring to the fore all the inner and outer resources of the competitor. Sri Chinmoy taught the real goal was not the outer accomplishment, but the inner progress which can come from transcending our previous capacities, and remaining cheerful whatever happens during the race.

“We compete not for the sake of defeating others, but in order to bring forward our own capacity. Our best capacity comes forward only when there are other people around us. They inspire us to bring forward our utmost capacity, and we inspire them to bring forward their utmost capacity”

– Sri Chinmoy

The race inspired many people who both took part, but also who came to help or cheer on the runners. This video gives an insight into the thoughts, feelings and experiences of the runners

3100 Mile Race Feature on US National Public Radio

3100 Mile Race Featured on NPR

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About the author:

On 30 August 2023, the 27th annual Sri Chinmoy 3100 Mile Self-Transcendence Race began in Jamaica, New York, US. This year, there are fourteen runners are on the start list and it is set to be a great race.

The start list includes the winner of the 2022 Race (Andrea Mercato, Italy) and last year's first woman (Susan Marshall, New Zealand). There are also four new runners - Tsai Wen-Ya, Mahasatya Janczak, Adrian Papuc and Jason Lester who will be entering the 3100 Mile Race for the first time. Despite being experienced ultra-distance runners, there is nothing that can fully prepare you for this unique ultra-marathon event.

In order to meet their goal of 3100 miles (4989km) in 52 days, they must log an average of 59.6 miles (95.9 km) per day. The runners begin at 6 a.m. and run for extended periods throughout the day. If they want to, they can continue as late as 12 midnight when the course closes for the night. After completing the race, runners have the option of continuing on to complete 5000km.

For many years, the race was held in the middle of the New York summer, with scorching temperatures adding to the challenge. Last year, the runners had cooler temperatures but also had to contend with the tail end of a hurricane and frequent heavy, persistent rain. This year the runners will be hoping for more favourable weather conditions, but whatever the conditions, the runners will be ready to seek their own personal self-transcendence and seek to overcome the many obstacles.

Sri Chinmoy the founder of the race saw distance running, and this race in particular, as a valuable opportunity for the runner to seek a life-transforming physical and spiritual self-transcendence.