It is seen as the Mount Everest of open-water swimming and our 18-year-old local girl from Pringle Bay did it.
On Sunday 23 August Amber-Rose Berry plunged into the cold, dark waters off Shakespeare Beach in Dover, England, at 05:27. Ten hours and 27 minutes later – having endured jellyfish stings, fierce currents, and the churning wake of a passing ship – the 18-year-old hauled herself onto the rocks at Pointe du Riden, near Cap Gris-Nez on the French coast.
She had just become the youngest South African woman to swim the English Channel. The 33 km crossing, still subject to official ratification by the Channel Swimming Association, placed Berry well ahead of the average completion window of 12 to 14 hours. Her pilot boat, Sea Leopard, was skippered by Stuart Gleeson, with observer Jon Miell aboard. “That was bloody tough,” Berry said afterwards.
This is not the first time Berry has made history. At just 16 years and 77 days old, on 3 December 2023, she became the youngest person to complete a solo swim across False Bay – the 33 km stretch from Miller’s Point to Rooi Els – finishing in nine hours and 40 minutes, wearing nothing more than a swimming costume and cap. That achievement earned her a Guinness World Record. She has also completed the Cape-to-Robben Island crossing twice, the first time at the age of 13.
Her English Channel swim was her longest challenge to date.
Berry’s Channel crossing was never just about personal glory. Through her “Believe in What You Can Achieve” campaign, she raised over R112 000 for the Ukukhula Institute in Makhanda, which provides scholarships and living-expense support to disadvantaged student-athletes from the Eastern Cape to study at Rhodes University.
“Raising opportunities for fellow student-athletes helped motivate me through the ordeal,” she said of the gruelling swim.
The timing of her achievement carries a special significance. Berry’s crossing came exactly 100 years after Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1926 – and during South Africa’s Women’s Month. She follows in the footsteps of another South African record-holder, Otto Thaning, who became the oldest person to complete the Channel crossing at the age of 73 in 2014.
Berry trained for months under open-water swimming coach Clinton le Seuer. During the crossing, she took liquid nutrition every hour for the first two hours before switching to feeds every 30 minutes – a disciplined fuelling strategy that kept her moving through one of the world’s most demanding open-water environments.
