The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.oakvillebeaver.com 29 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · SATURDAY, JULY 1, 2006 The channel awaits KEVIN HILL / SPECIAL TO THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Oakville's Rob Kent will attempt to become the 18th Canadian to swim the English Channel By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Those who hear of Rob Kent's upcoming adventure are intrigued and politely ask him about it. But he knows what they're thinking. Those who know him well are a little more blunt. "They think I'm an idiot," Kent said. Later this summer, the 41-year-old Oakville resident will attempt to become the 18th Canadian to swim the English Channel. The Canadian contingent includes Marilyn Bell, the first swimmer to cross Lake Ontario, Cindy Nicholas, who completed the feat 24 times, and Vicki Keith, who became the first person to cross the channel doing the butterfly. Lake Ontario may seem like the natural challenge for local distance swimmers -- at 51 kilometres it's actually longer than the 38-km Channel swim -- but Kent said there is a special appeal to the English Channel. "It's the Mount Everest of swimming," he said. "It's the world-recognized standard for long-distance open water swimming." In fact, the channel may be tougher than Everest. Since the first successful channel crossing took place in 1875, it has been completed 812 times. The first successful summit of Mount Everest was in 1953 and more than 2,000 people have done it since then. While the distance may not be as great as Lake Ontario, there are far more challenges for swimmers to contend with in the chan- nel, including strong currents, tides, salt water, colder and rougher water and jellyfish. Kent has been keeping in constant contact with an Internet community made up of people who have "It's the made the crossing, Mount Everest attempted it, or of swimming." helped others as guides. It was Oakville swimmer through that group Rob Kent that he received some words of wisdom in an e-mail from Keith. "Walk into the water knowing you will be successful," she said. "Allow no question of doubt to eat at you. The easiest way to accomplish a goal such as this is to walk into the water knowing it is a foregone conclu- sion that you will succeed. It does not matter how long it takes, finishing is the priority." The world-record time for the swim, set last year, is seven hours and three minutes but Kent would be content with the average time of about 14 hours. A veteran of about a dozen marathons and an iron man triathlon, Kent will attempt his swim between August 30 and September 6, depending on weather conditions. He'll essentially be on standby and when the conditions are right, he'll be given six hours notice to prepare. That means he could be swimming in the middle of the night, which will present another challenge. "You're not talking to anyone, you're just staring into the abyss," Kent said of night See Channel page 30