Congratulations to Annemarie Ward - World Open Water Swimming, Woman of the Year

We should all be very proud of this exceptional lady who after her fourth attempt realised her dream and swam the North Channel!! Annemarie was in the water for 18hrs 59 mins and is truly living proof that anything is possible if you never give up!!.

The awards ceremony will take place in New York either in June or Sept (tbc) at the World Conference of Open Water swimming when Annemarie will also be inducted into IMSHF (Pictures to follow!!)

Please click here to listen to Annemarie being interviewed about her epic achievement. Please also visit Annemaries' blog kept by her close friend and fellow swimmer Nuala Moore. Finally please also visit www.openwatersource.com

Ireland is certainly coming to the forefront of Open Water swimming throughout the world. We now seem to have a habit of producing a "never ending conveyor belt" of English Channel swimmers which in itself is no mean feat!!

And who could forget the exploits of Stephen Redmond who also completed the North Channel in 2010!! We should be damn proud of them all!!