‘The hardest swimming I’ve ever done’

A THAME man who challenged himself to a cross-continental swimming race in memory of his late mother, beat Pippa Middleton – but almost missed the finishing line.

Mike Bishop after the swim, with his sons Isaac (L) and Henry (R)

Mike Bishop from Thame successfully completed the Samsung Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swimming Race to raise money for research into pancreatic cancer, the disease that killed his mother, swimming with 1,600 swimmers – including Pippa and James Middleton, on July 20.

The 6.5km swim along the Bosphorus strait in Turkey – the busy shipping lane that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia – is a gruelling race against the clock because the Turkish authorities close the Bosphorus for two hours only to allow the race to go ahead. Mike described the highs and the lows of the day:

“A single boat took all 1600 entrants from the finish line to the start point on the Asia side of the Bosphorus. At a little after 10am we started with everyone jumping in to the sea in rapid succession, basically a mass of bodies at the start. It took me 200m or so to fully relax into my stroke and breathing, but after that I really enjoyed the swim. It’s a beautiful place to swim – sunny, warm and great scenery. I was really enjoying it, that is until the last 1/2 km or so…

“The day before the race we had an orientation boat trip when the organisors highlighted the best route to take to get the current without hitting the reverse currents along the way. Throughout the swim everything was going well until the last marker (a man made island) which we were told to be around 150m away from before turning in to the finish line. As I arrived at this point I could see that I was way too far away from it, a good 400 or 500m away from the Island. I tried to turn in but then realised that on my current path I was going to overshoot the finish line and be disqualified. Whilst trying not to panic with the thought of failing at the end, I swam as hard as I could directly across the current to the finish line, probably the hardest swimming I’ve ever done. I was helped a little with the reverse current and then finally made it to the finish line in 1hr5m. As I climbed out of the water I felt fantastic!

“For my family waiting at the finish…. It took me a while to find Sue and the boys when I first got out so after 1.5hrs they were getting nervous and worried. Then they saw my name pop up on the screen and so knew that I’d made it. They’re all really proud of my achievement and I got a great reception, not to mention the banner and fake medals my boys had made for me .

“I didn’t get to see Pippa Middleton but looking at the race results we did it in pretty much the same time; I was just 40 seconds ahead!

“Would I do it again? Right now I really want to do it again next year but I’ve also been looking for alternatives, so we’ll see!”