INSPIRATIONAL West Devon athlete Trish Deykin has triumphed over her physical and emotional limitations in the biggest challenge of her successful sporting life.

Trish Deykin, 47, of Milton Combe, former world, European and British sprint triathlon champion, completed the Isles of Scilly Swim Challenge, despite worrying it would defeat her as her longest ever swim and because she has multiple sclerosis. The event on September 9, requires swimmers to swim a total of nine miles in the sea, island-hopping accross the Scillies, by landing on beaches and walking across five to begin the next leg of the swim.

Trish said: “I’m so pleased that everything went well for me. Right up to the last minute I was thinking I’d bitten off more than I could cope with. I knew I was capable, after all the training I’ve done, but I was worried that my MS would make it too hard. I tend to get very tired from the MS, especially in the afternoon. I’m at my best in the morning and do all my training then. But it was a different event to what I’m used to as a triathlete with walking across each island to the next swim breaking up the time in the water.”

The 150 swimmers competitors all wore wetsuits, hi-viz floats attached to their ankles and numbered swim hats and marshall kayaks looking after them.

Trish, who has been training at Mount Kelly College pool for several months with regular 8km or 5mile swims, has only swam at most 6.5miles before. She said: “It was a very friendly event with everyone taking part chatting to each other on the walks. We effectively had rests as we walked, which helped me a lot. The only issue was my forearms really hurting. I also helped the kayakers carry their kayaks across the isands, which saved them paddling round the islands to the start of the next swim. The water was so clear. It was lovely to see so well into such clean water. One swimmer said they’d seen a seal looking up at them. It was very well organised and swimmers were started in ‘pods’ each with a safety boat. I’m not used to being so far out from land, so it was great to be able to get my head down and just follow the lead kayak without worrying about swimming in the wrong direction. It’s hard to see the land and know where to head for when you are at water level. We missed the tide which would have carried us along, but iut was a great event.”

Trish raised £1,900 for Devon Air Ambulance, Marine Conservation Society and MacxMillan Cancer: https://www.justgiving.com/Trish-Deykin5