Sport
16 January, 2024
Best of 2023: Peta attacked channel!
In September 2023, local athlete Peta Bradley completed a team swim of the English Channel.
First published October 2023
After claiming a bronze medal at June’s Ice Swimming World Championships, local athlete Peta Bradley completed a team swim of the English Channel.
Her team ‘Channel Attack’ completed the swim in 13 hours and 15 minutes, covering 55 kilometres from England to France on September 14 and 15, 2023.
Ms Bradley said the distance in a straight line across the channel is only 32 kilometres, but tides and conditions played into the group having to swim the extra 23 kilometres to cross. The swimmers are accompanied by a support boat, the ‘Sea Leopard’, and crew.
“The English Channel is also the busiest shipping lane in the world, and our skilled pilot navigated not just the tides and currents but also the large container ships in the shipping lanes,” said Ms Bradley.
“The boat had two co-pilots and an official channel swimming association representative to ensure that the swim would be ratified.”
The Channel Attack relay team featured six members, including people from Broken Hill, England, and Adelaide. The team was also raising funds for charity Soldier On, which supports returned veterans; so far Channel Attack have raised $1600.
Ms Bradley said each swimmer did one-hour stints at a time and she was lucky enough to be given the honour of the starting pistol. “I lead the team off from the English beach ‘Sampfire Hoe’ at about 11:30pm.
“My second hour was in the middle of the channel in some rough water and where I got to see the sun come up. Then the final hour was a hard push to get us in close to Cap Gris-Nez on the French side where we would land. Our team was also supported and coached by Australian Open Water Swimming Hall of Fame Inductee Mike Gregory. It was amazing to be part of a team like this, despite us all living in different parts of Australia I really felt like we were in it together, and swimming being such a solo sport I found this amazing!
“Everyone put in a massive effort before and during the swim, and we were rewarded with a good time in some challenging conditions.”
After the mammoth swimming effort, Ms Bradley has been on holiday in Europe and the UK, attending a ram sale and playing tourist. Ms Bradley is the Sheep Genetics general manager for Meat and Livestock Australia. The former Gilgandra High School student will also return to work from home at Armatree next month.
