Channel swim costly for Elizabeth Horner

Press, 4 September 1982, Page 1

Channel swim costly for Elizabeth Horner

Bv JOHN COFFEY

Swimming the English Channel is no longer the basic, and quite inexpensive, task first faced many years ago.

A Merchant Navy captain, Matthew Webb, had the distinction of being the first to prove that the frequentlytouted Channel tunnel was not necessary when he spent almost 22 hours of August 24 and 25, 1875, between Dover and Calais Sands soldiering on with his unusual onearmed strokes. Three months earlier, a citizen of the United States, Pau] Boyton, had made it from Cap Gris-Nez to South Foreland in a patent lifesaving suit. Whether it be because Webb bared his chest to the elements, or his English heritage, or that he did the decent thing by leaving in the shade of the white cliffs, the Englishman is generally acknowledged as being the first. Some doubt exists as to whether Webb or Boyton was actually first to avoid the increasingly busy shipping lanes and conquer that stretch of often-rough water.

The “Guinness Book of Records” suggests that JeanMarie Saletti might have beaten both as early as 1815. It says there is “good evidence” to suggest that Saletti, a French soldier, escaped from a British prison hulk off Dover and swam to Boulogne. He was smart enough not to go back to England to prove his survival.

Saletti might* have been the first of thousands who have felt the need to cross over. Two or three hundred have succeeded, and there are all kinds of records: oldest, youngest, fastest, slowest, quickest double crossing, most frequent, speediest underwater (with scuba gear).

So it is that a Burnside High School pupil, Elizabeth Horner, was one of the most recent when she achieved her ambition last week-end. She has a place in the channel’s history — the third New Zealand woman and the fastest.

Little Liz, a week or so short of her seventeenth birthday, returned to Christchurch last evening, accompanied by her mother, Mrs

Elsie Horner.

She probably was not the only member of the Horner family who was relieved when conditions were perfect for the swim last Saturday morning. Mrs Horner has become used to bearing whatever the weather and water offer the crew of support boats, whenever Elizabeth sets out to add to her illustrious list of long-distance swims. She had, as usual, packed her sea-sick pills to set out from Folkestone, but they .were not needed. She said that she sun-bathed as Elizabeth swam. The channel tends to be surprisingly shallow, and quite free from sharks, Mrs Horner says. Apart from Elizabeth’s having to tread water for about 30 seconds, there was also no need to take evasive action from large vessels. The spirit of Matthew Webb would have considered it all so uneventful.

But it is not as simple as that. The Horners had waited weeks for satisfactory conditions, and another day or two would have forced them to leave for home.

Inflation and administration have also had their effect on such pastimes. The overseeing Channel Swimming Association requires that all attempts be registered, that an observer tag along, and that successful bids be recognised by a certificate only on payment of a stiff fee. The total cost is about £5O, of which £2B provides a handwritten certificate. New Zealand's . exchange rates are not favourable to such expenses, and the Horner household now eagerly awaits the certificate. The £2 postage has been paid.

Elizabeth has no intention of becoming a landlubber. The national long-distance series is ahead of her and so. too, is the feared Foveaux Strait. Last summer the severe cold caused her to abandon her Foveaux challenge when she seemed poised to become only the third person to succeed.

In January the challenge will be renewed. Mrs Horner considers Elizabeth needs "a bit more fat, and more grease.”