Bengaluru :

Until six years ago, Rajan Srinivasan, the 47-year-old vice-president of British Telecom, didn’t know how to swim. On Wednesday evening, as he stood at the White Cliffs of Dover, he felt a deep sense of accomplishment. It wasn’t without reason. Srinivasan was part of a team from Bengaluru that crossed the English Channel.

The Swimlife Seagulls, an eight-member team led by coach M Satish Kumar, crossed the 63km distance (they took the longer route because of high tide) in 14 hours and six minutes. What sets the team apart from other swimmers is the diversity. Homemaker Suman Singhi was the lone woman in the team, entrepreneur Tejas M Sati was the youngest at 34 and 67-year-old Mohan Sawkar, a lawyer practising at the Karnataka High Court, was the oldest.

It was Srikaanth Viswanathan, an engineer, who mooted the idea in July last year. And the team began its training soon.

Preparations took them to Kodi Beach in Kundapur and Calangute in Goa. In March this year, they did a trial swim, crossing the 40-km stretch from Khanderi to Gateway of India, Mumbai. The team, which landed in Dover on August 28, initially planned to cross the Channel on September 11, but when the window to accomplish their mission came up on Wednesday, they took up the challenge after three days of practice. They began their arduous journey at 2 am.

“It’s a great feeling to have crossed the Channel,” Satish told TOI from Dover. “It’s special because most of the members initially started swimming for health reasons and to overcome their fears. But through the past year, our goal was crossing the English Channel. We had to overcome many challenges, sea sickness being the biggest. We were not used to the temperature, 14 degrees Celsius. Each of us feels we have accomplished something.”

While the actual distance is 32km, the Seagulls had to cover 63km because of high tide. Each person swam for an hour at a stretch before the next one took over. “It is an over-the-moon feeling,” said an elated Suman. “I began to swim to battle high blood sugar and cholesterol. I never thought I would conquer the Channel and my ailments.”

Still in celebratory mode, the team is game for the challenge one more time.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Bengaluru / by Manuja Veerappa, TNN / September 04th, 2015