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Swimmer | Christof Wandratsch |
| Age | 38 | |
| Country | Germany | |
| Date of Swim | 2nd August 2005 | |
| Start Time | 11:10 am | |
| Swim Time | 7 hours 03 minutes 52 seconds | |
| Starting Point | Shakespeare Beach, England | |
| Finish | Cap Gris Nez, France | |
| ` | ||
| Monitoring Body | Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation | |
| Official Observer | Kevin Murphy, Peter Hanson | |
| Pilot (Boat) | Michael Oram (Gallivant) | |
| Club | ??? | |
| Coach | ??? | |
| Crew | Michael Oram, Kevin Murphy |
In 2003, Christof came within 3 minutes of breaking Chad Hunderby's 1994 England-France record of 7:17. Both swimmers had Reg Brickell Junior as the pilot for their swims which took a similar course.
Apart from the year of his 2003 Channel swim, Christof ranked in the top-10 swimmers on the FINA World Cup circuit from 1999-2004. In 2002, he ranked number 2. On the FINA 25 km races, the winners of the mens events generally post winning times of 5-to-5.25 hours - translating to open-water 1,500 metre splits of just over 19 minutes!
. . 
With the experience from his 2003 Channel success, Christof planned to return to break the record. The weather in 2004, however, did not coincide with his
planned swim, so his efforts were refocused to 2005. His time of 7:03:52 was quite amazing, and is as much a tribute to his pilot, Michael Oram, as it is to his
own dedication to training for this event, which he completed without the aid of a pacer maker.
Material provided by Channel Swimmers SmartGroup and the CS&PF
Christof Wandratsch web site
Created: 6th August 2005
Last Updated: 11th August 2005
