Women complete 'tough' English Channel swim

Five women from Jersey have completed a swim of the English Channel.

Lisa Biddlecombe, Karen Le Cornu, Jean Rhodes, Rhiannon Patel and Rachel Sayers completed the crossing in 13 hours and five minutes, beating their initial target of 15 hours.

They were supported by skipper Paul Foreman and his crew Jason Parrott from the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation on the boat Optimist.

The team labelled it "a tough swim" and said before they had completed it some people had thought their aspirations had been overly ambitious.

The women said: "The English Channel swim route crosses one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and the water is still cold early in the season.

"The weather is unpredictable and a big spring tide brought a technical challenge to the swim.

"'Five with the Tide' was a determined team and with the best advice, good preparation, an amazing pilot boat crew and loads of luck, we did Jersey proud."

Follow BBC Jersey on X and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.