Warwick schoolboys who swam the Channel twice up for national award

The team - made up of six pupils aged between 14 and 18 at the time of the swim in July - have been put forward for the ‘Unsung Hero’ category of this year’s Aviva Daily Telegraph School Sport Matters National Awards.

The boys have been invited to attend a ceremony at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London on November 14 - where they will rub shoulders with Olympic diver Tom Daley, Olympic gold medal swimmer Ruta Meilutyte and Paralympic swimmer Hannah Russell, from Kelly College, who have also been nominated.

The teenagers took 25 hours and 37 minutes to complete the swim - and are the first team to do so this year. The boys also became the only six-man school team to date to have completed the two-way swim.

Led by 18-year-old Will Hopkins, the swimmers took 13 hours and nine minutes to swim in relay from Dover to Abbeville in Calais and 12 hours and 28 minutes to swim back to England again.

The youngest was 14-year-old Max Clarke, while the other swimmers were Josh Harridine, Patrick Haynes, James Foster, Callum Ellis and boat support team member Angus Preston.

On the same day, six girls from King’s High School in Warwick completed the first schoolgirl attempt to cross the Channel in 46 years. The teams were raising funds for Get-A-Head charitable trust, which supports people with head and neck cancers.

Headteacher Edward Halse said: “Congratulations to the team and their coach Peter Nield for being nominated in this prestigious school sporting event. It took vision, courage and energy to see this amazing and exhilarating challenge through.”