Kolkata girl crosses English Channel

Kolkata: Twenty-two-year-old city girl Amrita Das crossed the English Channel, completing the 34-km

challenge in 13 hours and 42 minutes. An understudy of Masudur Rahman Baidya, the first double amputee below the knee to cross the channel, Amrita began at 6.19 am (GMT) from the Shakespeare beach in Dover, England and swam across the channel, reaching France at 8.01 pm (GMT) on September 4. She could have bettered the timing if Amrita did not veer off course due to strong currents, Baidya said. "There were high tidal waves that blew her off-course and she had to remain static for about an hour before resuming swimming," Baidya, who has conquered the English Channel (1997) and the Strait of Gibraltar (2001), told reporters. Baidya said Amrita had started started her preparation long ago. "She trained in Puri sea and swam there for hours in the waves in the preparations of English Channel. Here in the city, she trained in the College Square pool," Baidya said. A graduate from Raja Rammohan College, Amrita was accompanied by father Ashoke Kumar during the mission. The swimmer, a resident of Amherst Street in north Kolkata, has also earned the distinction of finishing fourth in 81-km Murshidabad swimming competition in the Bhagirathi river in 2007. Mirhir Sen of India was first Asian to cross the channel in 1958 and Bula Chowdhury was first girl in the world to have made it twice in the 80s and 90s. PTI