Channel Swimmers

Mervin Sharp

King of The Channel, 1974-1975
7 Crossings

	Swimmer	Mervin Sharp
	Age	??
	Home	Weymouth
	Country	England
	Dates of Swims	1967 to 1974
	Start Time
	Swim Times hh:mm	13:42 to 19:41. Details below
	Starting Point	England and France. Details in Table below.
	Finish	France and England. Details in Table below.
	`
	Monitoring Body	Channel Swimming Association
	Official Observer
	Pilot (Boat)
	Club	Weymouth Swimming Club
	Trainer
	Crew

Mervin Sharp from Weymouth completed his first crossing of the Channel, France-England, in 1967 with a time of 18:34. By 1974 he had completed seven crossings to take the title of King of the Channel from Brojen Das. He held the title for one year before it was broken by Des Renford.

Mervin's seven crossings ae summarized below:

1967	FE101	18:34
1968	EF29	17:52
1969	EF37	14:29
1969	EF41	19:41
1970	EF42	15:14
1973	EF75	15:17
1974	EF76	13:42

Pro Circuit - Wennerberg

In 1982, Mervin was one of five swimmers from Weymouth who had successfully swam across The Channel. Shown in the photograph with the other four who were equally famous in their own right. Left-to-Right: Mervin Sharp; Philip Gollop who was the youngest to cross the Channel with his 13:45 crossing in 1965; Jacqui Hampson who, with a time of 15:32, in 1982 became the youngest person to have swum across The Channel; Greg Schofield; Godfrey Chapman whose 13:02 made him the first Englishman to complete the Daily Mail race of 1951. Interestingly, apart from being from Weymouth, all five swimmers had attended the same school.

Material provided by Greg Schofield and BLDSA Annual Reports.

Created: 20^th March 2005
Last Updated: 31^st March 2005