Record entrants for the 37th San Remo Channel Challenge

A SENSE of relief followed the successful staging of the rescheduled Channel Challenge at San Remo last Saturday. 

After the initial attempt was postponed, there were 200 competitors who received refunds as they had other plans already in place for the long weekend.

But another 260 competitors were attracted by the prospect of tackling the iconic event in favourable conditions, and by the time the event started, there was a record number of 640 entrants in the system although not every one of them turned up on the day.

Organisers knew beforehand that there were many original entrants who had not asked for a refund but who would not be able to make the event, but they decided to leave their entry fee remain as a donation to the Woolamai Beach SLSC.

It is believed that there have been 800 different competitors who had entered for either one of the scheduled events and this demonstrates that there is a massive interest in this unique event which is expected to keep growing.

The event itself was run in ideal conditions although it was a difficult tide to predict as it had changed early on the previous day when organizers checked. 

However, the top ranking competitors in Callum McLusky and Tokyo Olympian, Emma Jeffcoat, were the fastest male and female competitors across the water and both went on to win their respective Divisions and repeat their victories of last year. 

Justin Tilley, a local O/40 competitor, put in a terrific effort to be the fourth fastest competitor overall and he naturally won both the Open and Local O/40 categories while a local youngster, Callum McLeod, also beat home all visiting and local competitors in the Junior Male category. 

Justin and Callum also took out the Bass Coast Series prizes for Open and Local competitors in their divisions. 

There was prizemoney of nearly $7,000 given out for the Channel Challenge and Bass Coast Series placegetters on Saturday plus vouchers worth several thousand dollars donated by the local business community.

Everyone involved with the Summer Series of events is glad that the big effort made to reschedule the Channel Challenge paid off, with a large number of spectators and competitors attending the event. 

Special events coordinator Ron Nicholason said that having the Bass Coast Series finalised was definitely preferable to holding it in abeyance until December.

“The Woolamai Beach SLSC would also like to especially thank the major sponsors of the Channel Challenge for 2023 – the Bass Coast Shire, the San Remo Bendigo Bank, the San Remo Hotel and the Phillip Island Nature Parks,” said Ron.  

“Special thanks to Phillip Island and San Remo Rotary who had organized a market for the cancelled event and the San Remo SES who are a major contributor to the actual running of the event.”