

Aussie grandfather swims English Channel

A 68-year-old man has made it into the record books by becoming the oldest Australian to swim the English Channel.

Victorian grandfather Don Riddington completed his swim in 19 hours and 45 minutes.

His achievement on Tuesday came a day after British swimmer Susan Taylor, 34, died in a similar attempt.

A member of the Brighton Icebergs in Melbourne, Mr Riddington decided to tackle the 34km English Channel to raise awareness of autism spectrum disorder.

"Without doubt it was the hardest 20 hours of my life and I was very lucky to have an incredible support crew to help me overcome all the challenges," Mr Riddington said in a statement on Thursday.

"It really is a dream come true."

With water temperatures around 14.5 degrees Celsius, he wasn't permitted to complete the crossing in a wetsuit or with a safety cage under official channel swimming rules.

The oldest person on record to swim the channel is Englishman Roger Allsopp at the age of 70 years and four months in 2011, in a time of 17 hours and 51 minutes.

The youngest is Briton Thomas Gregory who was just 11-years-old when he made the crossing in 1988.

© AAP 2018


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