Tom Dean’s relay staff units English Channel British report, falling three minutes wanting world greatest

Triple Olympic swimming champion Tom Dean and his relay teammates wanted to beat six hours 52 minutes. They received there in six hours, 55 minutes.

The margin – three minutes over 33 kilometres of open water – was all that stood between the British relay and a 36-year-old English Channel world report on Tuesday (22 September). Dean’s staff did, nonetheless, decrease the British report, taking 22 minutes off the seven hours and 17 minutes achieved by a Dover Lifeguard Club staff in 1981.

The world mark of 6:52 has belonged to the U.S. National Swim Team since 1990, and it survived one other problem on Tuesday.

“Records are hard to beat for a reason,” mentioned coach Tim Denyer afterwards. “They’re about being on the right side of fine margins for hours. We’re gutted and have lost our voices, but the sun will come up tomorrow. We’ll come back stronger next time.”

The swim, from Dover, England, to Cap Gris-Nez in France, raised cash for the Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS), the water security charity for which Dean is an envoy.

“We have the ability to get it right, but we have to execute good race plans, and we have to have the weather and the conditions on our side. We need the conditions to be perfect,” Dean informed Olympics.com earlier than the swim.

“If those things align, then that record is well within our sights,” he continued. “But there’s a reason why it has stood for 36 years – it’s such a tough record to beat.”

Swimming below the banner “Spirit of Great Britain,” Dean was joined by British 200m butterfly champion Joshua Gammon, Lake Windermere report holder George Taplin, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 distance freestyler Daniel Jervis and Paris 2024 open water Olympians Toby Robinson and Hector Pardoe.