Ashleigh Webb waits for ratification of Baltimore to Fastnet Rock record

Australia Broadcast Center

a day ago

Australian swimmer Ashleigh Webb has become the first woman to record a sub-5-hour time in Ireland's Baltimore to Fastnet Rock ocean swim.
The 35-year-old from Newcastle achieved the feat on Thursday with a time of 4 hours and 57 seconds, with the time awaiting official ratification from The International Irish Long Distance Swimming Federation.
She said she was not aiming to break any records with the swim.
"The waters were very steady and calm … I just reminded myself to be prepared for that not to happen once I get out of the harbour and the protection of the inlet," she said.
"As soon as we exited the harbour and the ocean sort of opened up, I could feel that I was going with the tide.
After she made the lighthouse-adorned rock, 20 kilometres off the south coast of Ireland, she tried to climb up to cheer, but ended up falling back into the water, where she was met by two of her crew who swam over to break the news.
"The boys just got there and just smothered me, and I hugged them back, and they were like, 'you swam it in 4 hours 57 [seconds],'" she said.
"They were just incredible, and I was like, what are you talking about? That's absolutely amazing."
Ashleigh's dad Mitchell Webb, who was keeping tabs on her swim from Newcastle, said it was incredible to see her achieve that time.
"She's chuffed at the moment, she's beside herself," he said.
"She's trained hard … both myself and my wife Lyn, we're very proud."
Ashleigh Webb is the founder of The Kallan Lodge Library, a charity that establishes literature and music libraries for young people in mental health facilities.
She established it with the parents of her close friend Kallan Lodge, who died by suicide at age 21 in 2011.
"[Kallan] used to drive around listening to music and wondering what made songs mean so much … and he'd make fun of me for being such a nerd and reading all the time," Ashleigh said.
"Books have always been there for me, music's always there for me, and it has this impact on me that's so significant.
"When I was 17, I was taken to John Hunter Hospital … looking back, I just thought about the kids that were in there, and I thought, I can give them some records to listen to and I can give them some books to read."
Mitchell Webb said literature, music, and swimming have been pivotal to his daughter becoming the woman she was.
"The charity now has opened up in four hospitals around Australia, for struggling teenage kids," he said.
Ashleigh said Kallan would be proud to know the impact the service was having.
"We got a letter from ACT Health after we had put our library into their new mental health facility … [a young person] had sat for an hour reading a book and afterwards said: 'I forgot how lovely this is. To just sit by a window and read a book.'"
Ashleigh's next challenge is the Dal Riata swim between Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The swim will be a fundraiser for the libraries and is dubbed "Do Something Swim".
"The sentiment of the Do Something Swim is that people care, but they don't always care to do something about it," she said.
"But people with mental health struggles, all they can do is something.
"Get up, get dressed, take a shower, get moving. Do something.
Mitchell said he was "so incredibly proud" of Ashleigh's achievements in swimming and mental health advocacy.
"You see her in tough times and hard times, and she just has this incredible strength that she has to pull herself through," he said.
"People say to me, 'what's her strength?' I say to them, 'well, don't tell her she can't do it because she'll prove you wrong.'"