Guernsey Swimming Club Swimmer Sarah Whitchurch wins the Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson Trophy for disabled Sports Achiever of the Year.
Sarah has completed in Marathons, triathlon in addition to her all of her swimming events.
Sarah has had an incredible year competing in the DSE East Region meet in February held in Southampton placing first in all her events in her classification, at the Guernsey Masters Meet in April she managed to achieve one of her goals by successfully competing in a medley event, the Jersey Masters Meet in September she competed for the first time in the 800 & 400 Freestyle events, the Autumn ASA South East Region Disability Championships in Hants again Sarah won all the events in her classification. The DES open National Championships was held in Manchester in November where Sarah entered 5 events winning 2 gold’s in the 200 free, 100 breaststroke, and 3 silvers in the 50 Backstroke,100m and 50m freestyle setting three new personal best times.
Sarah’s achievement has resulted in her qualifying for the international swimming championships in Glasgow in March 2015.
A well deserved winner of this award
Sarah was also nominated for the Guernsey Brewery Salver for an outstanding sporting achievement of the year by a sportswoman resident in Guernsey for the Herms swim.
Having successfully completed the 5 Guernsey Swimming Club open water swims with distances from 700m to 1500m in varying weather conditions was a good achievement. However grater achievement for Sarah was completing the inter-island Herm Swim.
Although being a tidal swim Guernsey to Herm should be about 5000m however the slower you are the more the tide will affect your swim. Sarah was one of 34 Guernsey Swimming Club swimmers who completed the swim, with no propulsion from her legs and restricted use of her hands Sarah battled with the tide taking her north during the first part of the swim. Suffering from the cold and fatigue Sarah courageously continued swimming picking up the southern current finishing outside the harbour in a time of 2 hours 43 minutes swimming around 6000m, perhaps not a record time for the Herm Swim but she became the first disabled swimmer to complete the Herm swim a truly remarkable achievement and momentous swim an inspiration for all.
Well done Sarah.