A Cork man abandoned a swim from Ireland to Wales yesterday morning because he was showing symptoms of hypothermia.
Open-water charity swimmer Steve Redmond (48) left Carne Pier in Wexford at about 11pm on Wednesday to began his attempt to cross the 80km to the Wales coast at St Davids. He was due to arrive in Wales today after 35 hours in the water.
However, early yesterday morning his support team, which included medical personnel, advised him to abandon the gruelling feat.
“Our main focus and concern was always Steve’s health and when he started displaying worrying signs of hypothermia we felt that with such a long swim ahead of him it was not worth the risk,” John Kearney, a member of his support team, said in a statement.
Mr Kearney said while many, including Mr Redmond, would be disappointed, it was the “right decision to end the attempt”.
Mr Redmond had previously swum some of the most “gruelling oceans” and knew not to “take chances”, he added. In July, he became the only person to complete the Oceans Seven Challenge. This involved swimming the English Channel, the North Channel (Northern Ireland and Scotland), the Gibraltar Straits, the Catalina Channel in California, the Cook Strait in New Zealand, the Molokai Channel in Hawaii and the Tsugaru Channel in Japan.
“Sometimes Mother Nature gets the better of us and this was one of those times,” a statement on Mr Redmond’s Facebook page said.
Mr Kearney thanked the supporters and said it would have been an “amazing accomplishment” to add to his “incredible list of endurance swims”.
He was undertaking the swim to raise funds for Irish and British lifeboat rescue service the RNLI.
