Oh buoy, what a swim!

On Saturday 28 May, Grace Swimming has 3 swimmers competing in "Swim the Gold Coast" - a 21.5km marathon swim for teams and individuals. The course spans the length of the Gold Coast, from Coolangatta Beach in the South, to Surfers Paradise in the North.

Brett Jackson, the Adult Squad Coach at Grace Swimming, along with 2 of the swimmers in his Squad, Sally Dymond and Kate Gurney, will be tackling this enormous swim. Grace Swimming has a proud history of Open Water Competitors, including Ben Jimmieson who holds a great collection of Open Water wins & accomplishments, including swimming the English Channel. Earlier this year we had a team of swimmers from our Gold (National) Squad, attend the Noosa Summer Swim and bring in amazing results. The trio heading to the Gold Coast for this event is excited and proud to continue the tradition of Open Water Swimming for Grace Swimming.

Brett, Sally & Kate are currently training 4 times a week, clocking in approximately 30kms each week. Brett has competed in many events like this before, but this will be Sally & Kate's first Open Water Swim of this distance. The team are very excited to finally compete in this event, as they have trained four times over two years for this swim which has been postponed 3 times due to COVID & weather.

On the day, the three swimmers will start together and make their way to the finish line individually. Each swimmer has a boat and a support kayak to look after them for the duration of the 6-8 hour swim.

This event is an absolute accomplishment, but for Kate - it's just a warm-up! In August of next year she will be swimming the English Channel. The swim is 41.8kms (26 miles) and the water at that time of year will be around 15 degrees. Just to qualify for the English Channel swimmers must complete a 6 hour swim in Australia in water that is under 18 degrees.

Good luck to team Grace!

Feature image: https://oceanswims.com/event/swim-the-gold-coast-marathon-swim/