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Solo swimmers achieve first time record for Old Harry to the Needles
Congratulations to Kirstie Beechey from Verwood who swam 16.4 miles from Old Harry Rocks to The Needles with her training partner, Sarah Newman. The stretch of water had never been swum solo before and the two women wanted to share the experience by completing the entire distance together.
Kirstie said, “It was an absolutely awesome, but tough swim that I hope will serve me well.”
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The worst part she said was getting ‘twitchy neck’ when she spotted the white cliff of the Needles and couldn’t help looking at it. “With twitchy neck comes hurty shoulder,” she explained, but after lots of reminders and finger wagging from the support boat, she kept her head down.
Kirstie hopes to swim the English Channel solo for the first time next July and will be raising money for Dreamflight UK and the Piam Brown Ward.
She swam the Channel in a relay in 2017 for charity.
Old Harry to the Needles took Kirstie 9 hours and 54 minutes – quite a feat.
The shortest route across the Channel is 21 miles and can take anywhere between 7
and 27 hours to complete. We wish Kirstie every success next July.
