This year’s Channel Challenge cancelled

After the recent outbreak of COVID-19 in the Bayside area of Melbourne the board of the Woolamai Beach Surf Life Saving Club (WBSLSC) in conjunction with the Channel Challenge organising committee has taken the extremely difficult decision to cancel the 2021 Channel Challenge.

Ron Nicholson, spokesperson for the committee said the latest outbreak “highlighted the fact that COVID-19 is still very much with us”.

“In fact there were two key Channel Challenge organisers caught up with the restrictions put in place after this outbreak – one put into quarantine after a game of golf at the Woodlands Golf Club.

“The WBSLSC is an organisation whose key purpose is to protect members of the community and keep them from harm and the risk of the event being responsible for bringing an outbreak of COVID-19 into the San Remo and Phillip Island Community did not sit well with members of the club,” Ron said.

The committee said the “extremely restrictive protocols” around running the event were making it difficult to maintain the Channel Challenge’s unique character.

“The small beach area at the start created social distancing problems,” explained Ron.

“There was a cap on how many competitors could be in each wave and in the transition area at the one time; all spectators’ contact details were supposed to be collected; the drink station at the finish also had a cap of 100 who had to be socially distanced with family and friends kept away.

“An inordinate amount of race marshalls would have been required to carry out these duties and kitted out in PPE.”

There was also the risk if preparations continued, the event would have to be called off at short notice.

“The event organisers could have taken entries and carried out the time consuming and expensive preparations to set the race up and then it could be cancelled at late notice and see the Surf Life Saving Club incur a significant loss,” Ron said.

“All involved with the Channel Challenge absolutely love the history and tradition of this unique event and we are very disappointed to have been forced to make this tough decision.

“We are disappointed for our loyal Challengers who have been training hard and for our great sponsors and support groups. We feel for the San Remo Traders and the Bass Coast community in general, but we do promise that we will back keener than ever for Channel Challenge XXXV1 in 2022.”