Camlough Is In The (Guinness) Books

Courtesy of WOWSA, Lake Camlough, Northern Ireland.

The Camlough Team, comprising of swimmers all over Ireland, received verification from the Guinness Book of World Records that they now officially hold the World Record for the Longest Continuous Open Water Relay Swim.

Without a doubt, this is one record that is going to be hard to beat.

Camlough Lake (meaning ‘crooked lake’), well-known for its natural beauty, was the focus on the marathon swimming relay world between September 9th-19th in 2009.

220 swimmers joined forces to crush the previous record (120 km in Lake Taupo, New Zealand by two separate six-person relays) and set a new global standard for the longest continuous open water relay at 686.5K.

The brainchild of Aoife McCourt-Lynch and Padraig Mallon, the Camlough Relay received tremendous support from the local community. Media coordinator Maria Murphy said, “The level of participation by everyone in Camlough and the wider South Armagh area was fantastic. This was a very serious and ultimately very successful attempt to break the world record for the longest open water relay swim.”

“The final swimmer, Donna Cooke, completed the last lap of this marathon, world record-breaking swim on Saturday morning, 232 hours 52 minutes and 30 seconds after the start. The people of Camlough and South Armagh will celebrate this fantastic achievement on March 13th in Carrickcruppen Hall.”

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