Awarded to the corporate team that swims the most laps during its 55-minute slot, the RBC Corporate Challenge Cup is currently held by the Jersey Customs & Immigration Team, who will return this year to defend their five-year reign as champions.

Team captain, Neil Hutton, said: “We’re thrilled to have retained the RBC Corporate Challenge Cup since 2012, with last year’s swim achieving a team record of 98 laps. It would be great for our Customs & Immigration Team to win for the fifth year running, but we are also open to some healthy competition from other corporate teams.

“With RBC making a donation for every lap swum over the five-day swim, it’s also a good incentive to help boost fundraising.”

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Pictured: Neil Hutton from last year’s winning Customs & Immigration team, holding the RBC Wealth Management Challenge Cup.

Tim Houghton, Head of Client Experience & Channel Strategy at RBC Wealth Management, long-term sponsors of the Swimarathon, said: “We launched the RBC Corporate Challenge Cup to encourage corporates to sign up to the Island’s longest-running fund-raising event. In addition to our lap donation for all participating teams, we pledge to match the Corporate Challenge Cup winning team’s sponsorship by up to £500.

“It’s always a tight finish for a handful of the corporate teams each year, but the Jersey Customs and Immigration team always manage to pip everyone else to the post. It’ll be interesting to see if any corporates have been secretly training and manage to better their team lap total this year.”

The Swimarathon will take place next week at the Les Quennevais Sports Centre from 8 to 12 March 2017.