Jersey team take on 70km Lake Geneva swim

Jersey Girls team after swimming across Lake Geneva

A group of Jersey swimmers who swam across Lake Geneva hope their success will inspire others to try open water swimming.

Sally Minty-Gravett, Fay de Gruchy, Alice Harvey, Karen Le Cornu, Rachel Sayers and Julia Morris were members of The Jersey Girls team who completed 'The Ultimate Trophy Swim' on Tuesday morning.

It took them 28 hours and 56 minutes to swim roughly 70km (43.5 miles), which is twice the width of the English Channel at its narrowest point.

Alice Harvey from the team said she hoped it would show others the benefits of open water swimming.

The team said they realised how tough the challenge would be at the start of the swim

Conditions were tough when they began the swim at Chillon Castle in Veytaux on Monday. The finished the challenge on Wednesday morning.

Ms Harvey said she thought “we all underestimated how tough it would be” and “as the swim went on, the winds picked up plus the currents were against us during most of the swim”.

She added: “I’ve always swam and we’ve done lots of local swims but this is something a bit bigger and it’s important to push ourselves out of comfort zones to show others how great open water swimming is.”

Ms Harvey also said “warmth and sun is on the list” for the next challenge after “cold and dark experience” of Lake Geneva.