Tatiana, 12, completes crossing
Kayaker becomes youngest girl to paddle across the English Channel after 4.5-hour trip with her mother
TATIANA Kimberley, 12, has become the youngest person to cross the English Channel in a kayak.
She and her mother Natasha took four and a half hours to cross from Folkestone to Bologne – even further than they had originally intended.
“It was great, especially when we started to see France,” said Tatiana, who has returned back to the UK.
The pair are raising money for their local canoe lclub at Marsac-sur-l’Isle near Périgueux.
Tatiana has been training two hours a day during the school holidays ahead of the challenge. In two year’s time she plans to repeat the trip in a single kayak, while her younger brother Maxim paddles with her mother.
Natasha Kimberley said: “Tatiana amazed me by not stopping to paddle even for a minute - incredible for a girl who just had her 12th birthday.”
Tatiana is the youngest girl to paddle across the Channel. In February Maia Wallace-Loizou, 13, completed the crossing with 15-year-old Dylan Barber-May.
Mrs Kimberley added: “It took ages to lose sight of England - absolutely ages, sometimes it felt that we are not moving anywhere, so we very surprised when an accompanying motor boat told us we have been going at brilliant speed for over three hours and that at this speed only had 1.5 hours left.”
The pair are still raising funds. Anyone interested in donating can contact Mrs Natasha Kimberley here.
