Obituary: Barry Watson, channel swimmer

Barry Watson, who has died at 81, was a world-beating swimmer from Cullingworth, near Bingley who for 17 years held the record for swimming the Channel.

It was in 1964 that he became the fastest man to swim from France to England, knocking an hour off the previous record. He never lost the competitive edge, and some 45 years later set himself the target of becoming the oldest man to front-crawl the same stretch of water.

He had taken nine hours and 35 minutes on Saturday August 15 1964 to make the crossing from Cap Gris Nez to Dover. An attack of cramp denied him a bold attempt to break the two-way crossing record but his name was in the record books and he was content with that and the modest fame it brought him.

He went on to make three successful two-way crossings, the fastest of which, in August 1969, took 13 hours and 56 minutes.

In the absence of organised training facilities in those days, he had to rely on his initiative, swimming in the River Aire and the Leeds-Liverpool Canal near his home to prepare him for the really serious stuff – competing in races on Windermere and Ullswater in final preparation for his Channel record attempt. He swam the length of Windermere more than 20 times.

He was the British long distance champion at Windermere in 1963 and 1964, the Long Distance Association Loch Lomond champion in 1967 and the long distance two-way Lake Windermere champion in 1966, 1967 and 1968. He also held titles for swimming from Fleetwood to Morecambe in 1963, 1965, 1966 and 1967.

His Channel record stood until 1977, when it was finally surpassed by an Egyptian teenager, Nasser Elshazly.

Mr Watson, meanwhile, remained active in the Bingley Harriers and Athletics Club, where he helped coach the future Olympic medallists Alistair and Jonny Jonathan Brownlee.

He spent his working life in the printing trade and in retirement was happy watching cross-country and fell running, until a rekindled interest in swimming prompted him to begin training for the Channel all over again – this time in the relative comfort of Ilkley Lido.

He was inducted to the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1973.

He is survived by his wife Linda and his daughters.