Kevin Murphy is the 10th English Channel swimmer to enter the Autodesk Sandycove Island Challenge 2006 swim race to be held in Kinsale, County Cork Ireland on 23 September making it by far the most prestigious group ever to participate in an Irish open water swimming event. Together the group has logged 44 solo swims across the channel.
Kevin is not just an English channel swimmer. Over the last thirty years he has pioneered many “firsts”, broken many swimming records around the word, completed the Scotland to Ireland swim three times and holds the title: “King of the English Channel”. Kevin is still warming up and earlier this year set another record with his 34th solo English Channel swim and three times has swam over-and-back!! He will congratulate Cork’s newest soloist Garda Danny Coholan on the day and will help inspire the next group of Irish swimmers dreaming of English Channel swims in 2007 and 2008.
Seamus Hurley, a Director of Cadco Ltd., the Irish Distributor for the leading design software company Autodesk, commented “This is the first year of Autodesk’s sponsorship of the event and we are delighted to welcome Kevin home to his roots in County Cork. His presence has boosted entries and the event is now closed with 150 swimmers which represents an increase of 50% over the record entry from 2005.
The unique Sandycove swim of 1,700 meters mixes English Channel veterans with a large group over from the famous Serpentine Club in London, Irish speedsters and more than twenty local newcomers to this event. The favourites to win the race are Ger Mangan and Aidan Maguire, the past two Lee Swim winners.
