Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
Cameron Keith, a 15-year-old vision-impaired swimmer from Australia, plans to attempt the 42 km Molokai Channel in September, but he wisely wanted to test himself first.
Keith knew he had to pass a difficult test before taking on Molokai.
But he had to be patient. His first scheduled swim from Green Island to Yorkey’s Knob, a suburb of Cairns, in Australia was cancelled due to strong winds. Originally scheduled for August 3rd, he had to wait nearly 2 weeks for a decent shot at the 27.1 km crossing.
Today, Keith successfully completed his test swim from Green Island in 7 hours 6 seconds. He was the fastest swimmer and third person in history to complete this swim after 14-year-old Eddie Lovelock pioneered the swim in 1978 in 8 hours 33 minutes and Chris Palfrey followed up in 7 hours 54 minutes in 2010 across the expanse of rough ocean water.
His father, Alan Keith, reported that “Cameron is happy, but tired. He is now planning Molokai for September 29th.”
Born without sight in one eye, Keith is swimming for others. “Being blind in my left eye from birth I understand the difficulties of vision impairment. The Fred Hollows Foundation provides excellent support for the vision impaired and I am looking to raise $5,000 for The Foundation.”
His story and his fund-raising page are here.
Photo of Cameron Keith by Tom Lee.
Copyright © 2014 by World Open Water Swimming Association