Swimmer, 81, prepares for cross-Channel challenge

Dot Wagstaff is hoping to complete the English Channel challenge in September

An 81-year-old woman is hoping to become a record-breaker by being the oldest ever woman to swim across the English Channel as part of a relay team.

Dot Wagstaff, from North Yorkshire, will be part of a team of six women taking it in turns to swim legs of the 21-mile crossing between Dover and France next month.

The team will be raising money for Cosmic, a charity that supports families, nurses and doctors treating babies and children in intensive care.

Ms Wagstaff said: “I’m definitely nervous, as swimming in the sea is unpredictable, due to things like jellyfish, we’ll be swimming in the dark depending on what time we set off, and we will be generally dependent on tide and weather conditions."

She added that she had been getting in plenty of preparation already ahead of the cross-Channel attempt in September.

“To deal with the coldness, I’ve been having cold showers, but then follow it with a hot shower, which has been my treat to myself," she said.

Ms Wagstaff, who lives near Pateley Bridge, clearly relishes a challenge.

She competed in the Ironman world championships in Hawaii when she was in her 60s, and she has also represented Great Britain three times in the world standard distance triathlon age group event in New Zealand, Canada and London.

She said that swimming the Channel was "something I’d always fancied doing, but had crossed it off my radar a long time ago".

Ms Wagstaff said she was feeling daunted by the mammoth task, but had faced big challenges before

However, she said she decided to give it a go after she was asked by a friend, a swimming coach, to take part in the challenge.

She said she would be joined in the effort by two women from York, one from Scotland, one from the Midlands and another from the south of England.

One noticeable difference between her and her team-mates is that they are all aged in their early 50s, while Ms Wagstaff is now an octogenarian.

She said: “We had tests and a medical to pass to make sure we were fit enough and we went in the sea at Whitby.

“It was really a test of if we could stand the cold because we will swim it without wet suits."

Ms Wagstaff said she currently went swimming about three or four times a week.

"I go do a lake swim every Friday, and I’m just trying to do two ordinary pool swims a day at the moment.”

Ms Wagstaff added that she had always enjoyed taking part in “endurance activities” and had been swimming since she was a child while growing up in York.

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