A TEAM of six male Polish swimmers sucessfully completed a relay swim from Gorey to the neighbouring French coast on Saturday.

Leaving Gorey at five o’clock in the morning, they landed just north of Portbail 10 1/2 hours later.

Accompanying them was Chris Le Masurier as pilot, Richard Flambard as team manager, Maurice Lakeman as team trainer, and Sam Lee and Don Eddie as canoeists.

The swimmers, Sebastian Duchnowski, Jack Duryuski, Cezary Kochan, Gregor Kubicki, Marius Skzart and Krysztof Twanicki, began training in earnest at the beginning of the year having had no previous experience of open water swimming.

As a result of their efforts funds have been raised for a school in Opole, Poland, catering for children suufering from cerebral palsy.

The swim was organised in association with Mont à L’Abbé School as part of Project Rainbow which aims to promote links between the two centres.

It is hoped that this venture will be the first of many cross-cultural links between Jersey and Poland.