By David Sillifant

LAUNCESTON’S Lowenna North has become the first junior to swim from Eddystone Lighthouse to Plymouth Hoe.

Lowenna, 15, who attends Launceston College, is also just the fifth person to compete the route since it was first attempted over 100 years ago.

Despite some awkward conditions including strong winds, she finished the 14-mile route in a time of 11 hours and 31 minutes and five seconds.

Lowenna explains her journey from Launceston Leisure Centre to record-breaker.

She told the Post: “I’ve swam pretty much my whole life as my parents wanted my brother and I to be able to and I soon joined Launceston Swimming Club.”

“I’m not really a fast swimmer and didn’t do that well in competitions so I decided to try open water swimming and never looked back.”

“We found a coach in Jason Quiterio who runs his own business ACE Swimming and then eventually joined Plymouth Open Water Swimmers and one of the guys, Neil (Brinkworth) did the Eddystone Lighthouse to Plymouth Hoe swim a couple of years ago (September 2020), and when I watched Neil finish his, I said I want to do that next. Mum and dad weren’t sure I’d go through with it, but here we are now.”

The swim has been nearly a year in the making. Lowenna said: “I was supposed to do it in September last year, but the conditions weren’t good enough to do it. I trained for a year for it before last September. Since then I’ve continued to put the hours in, especially as the water gets warmer, and last month I did a six-hour swim in preparation for this.”

Battling the windy conditions and a strong current meant Lowenna had to show plenty of resolve.

She said: “It was hard. I said as I finished it it’s all about the mental side of it. I believe that this type of swimming is mentally more challenging rather than physically. Although it is hard physically, getting over that mental barrier is far tougher. The hardest part was getting through the breakwater tide against us. It felt like I was swimming on the spot at one point. I got to the third or fourth hour and I was struggling and feeling a bit ill. But I’m very hard on myself and am extremely stubborn so I told myself there’s no option but to keep going. I actually ended up doing 16.28 miles due to the tides. I got pushed off towards Rame Head so had to work my way back.”

So how does one fuel themselves for such an arduous effort?

Lowenna said: “I had foods and drink every hour. I had a hot drink – usually squash and for most of my swim consisted of having jelly babies, wine gums and tinned peaches. The syrup with the peaches are good for salt tongue.”

The teenager admitted the end couldn’t come soon enough, although is already looking forward to further events in the future.

She said: “The feeling at the end was just one of relief to have finally done it. We’ve been on about doing this for nearly two years so to have finally done it is amazing, but I’ve already got more ideas.”

“I’ve got the English Channel Swim booked for 2024 when I’m 17 and then I want to do the British Triple Crown which is the English Channel, Bristol Channel and the North Channel that connects the Irish Sea and Scotland and then hopefully push towards the Ocean 7s and the World Triple Crown.”

Lowenna offered her thanks to everybody who made it possible.

She said: “The support I had was amazing. I didn’t expect so many people to be waiting there and the support I received both before and after the event has been incredible. I can’t thank everybody enough. I’d also like to say thanks to my support team, Ben from In Deep who provided the safety boat, Neil (Brinkworth), Andrew Butler, Vicky Harrison and Billy O’Manony for being my support crew and to my parents.”

Lowenna’s efforts will be added to the Marathon Swimming Federation website once all the documentation has been gathered, submitted and verified.

Proud parents James and Ruth North told the Post: “We’re so proud of her and all of the hard work has paid off. All the early mornings were worth it when we saw Lowenna’s face at the end.”