Well done Chun, Eliza, Allen and Eugene
Within a week, 4 Hongkongers made history in the English Channel as the first ever solo Hongkonger and the first ever Hong Kong relay team to swim across it.
The solo crossing was done by Chun Kong Mak. He lives in Czechia currently. He is a seasoned marathon swimmer and ice swimmer. Last year he also became the first ever Hongkonger to complete an ice mile. He started at 23:39 1st September and got it across in 13 hours and 55 minutes, and became the first ever Hongkonger to swim the English Channel.
The relay crossing was done by the Law Society team, composed of Eliza Chang, Eugene Wong and Allen Che. They are all HKU alumni and served the role of the team captain in the university swimming team. They also did a relay crossing of Qiongzhou Strait before. They swam it to support Splash Foundation, a charity which provides swim lessons for domestic workers and underprivileged people in Hong Kong, many of whom never had a chance to learn swimming through their education system in their youth. They started at 01:37 6th September and got it across in 13 hours and 48 minutes, a few minutes faster than the solo crossing by Chun Kong Mak. The tracks were surprisingly similar as well.
Congratulations and proud of you all! I hope that these two swims can be a kick-start of the channel swimming scene in Hong Kong, with more channel swims by Hongkongers coming in 2021!