{"id":134773,"date":"2020-09-04T23:01:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-05T04:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=134773"},"modified":"2020-09-06T22:00:38","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T03:00:38","slug":"son-of-vw-native-swims-english-channel-in-record-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2020\/09\/04\/son-of-vw-native-swims-english-channel-in-record-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Son of VW native swims English Channel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

VW independent\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The son of a Van Wert native not only recently swam the English Channel but also set a world backstroke record for the Channel crossing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Nik Haynes, son of Van Wert native Bonnie Good Haynes, is shown swimming the English Channel in August. photo provided<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A competitive swimmer qualifying for nationals as a member of the Talbot County, Maryland, YMCA, the young Nik Haynes became successful at setting and achieving goals. Later, he would compete in the 2003 world triathlon championships, as well as finish both a marathon and an ironman triathlon. All these led to the desire to swim the English Channel using the stroke he had mastered: the backstroke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the 41-year-old swimmer and teacher now lives with his wife and children in Devon, a coastal county in England, he grew up in St. Michaels, Maryland, the son of former Van Wert resident and Van Wert High School graduate Bonnie Good Haynes and her husband, Tim.  Like his mother before him, Nik Haynes was a swimmer at a young age; he attended Towson University on a swimming scholarship, where he once held four school backstroke records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Haynes\u2019 first attempt at swimming the Channel on Saturday, September 5, 2015, he was pulled from the 41-degree water in the French shipping channel after getting about three-fourths of the way across.  Battling hypothermia and a severely swollen throat, the decision was made to stop his attempt to cross.  About three years ago, Haynes decided to begin training for another attempt, and this time he was determined to hold out for better weather conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Friday, August 7, proved to be the perfect day. Ironically, because of Covid-19, recent training took place in the nearby sea rather than pools, a fact that most likely proved helpful in the success of his second attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trek made by these elite swimmers is an S-curve of approximately 26-27 miles beginning in England and ending on the coast of France. A boat is charged with steering the course, stopping every hour for one-minute breaks and providing the swimmer with snacks and a carbo mix drink administered via a squirt bottle.  Haynes was permitted to wear only a pair of swim trunks, goggles, and a cap, and use Vaseline on certain parts of his body to guard against chafing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time, unlike 2015, the air temperature was near 66 degrees at the start, rising to 86 degrees near the end.  Beginning in the darkness, Haynes forged ahead, maintaining a smooth, even stroke, although suffering from numerous jellyfish stings and shoulder pain. After several hours, when water began creeping up his nose, he was given a nose clip, which prevented the throat swelling he had suffered in his previous attempt. As he approached the coast of Wissant, France, he attracted curious paddle boarders and beach goers who enthusiastically helped celebrate his achievement.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five years after his failed attempt at swimming the English Channel, Haynes was successful. Not only was he successful, but he was able to do so in a world backstroke record time of 12 hours, 52 minutes, 41 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friends and family were cheering from their homes across the United States and the world, as they had watched his progress and donated to his chosen charity, WaterAid, via an online opportunity.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After sitting on a coastal rock for a few minutes amid the crowd, the swimmer swam back to the boat, High Hopes, for a much easier return to the English Coast, tired, sunburned, but elated, having sought and achieved his revenge for the earlier defeat by the English Channel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VW independent\/submitted information The son of a Van Wert native not only recently swam the English Channel but also set a world backstroke record for the Channel crossing. A competitive swimmer qualifying for nationals as a member of the Talbot County, Maryland, YMCA, the young Nik Haynes became successful at setting and achieving goals. Later, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-01 23:32:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134773\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}