THE recurrence of an injury halted a Saffron Walden swimmer’s progress during his 24-mile challenge.

Alex Knibbs had to retire from 2swim4life after 12 miles after the “tennis elbow” he sustained while swimming Hawaii’s Maui Channel in 2006 flared up.

“I had a resurgence of an arm injury around the fifth or sixth mile and I knew then that I would have to take alternative action to carry on,” he said.

“I had to kick all of mile eight and then I part-swam and part-kicked the rest.”

Mr Knibbs had been training with the WaldenTri club in the months leading up but he admitted that even without the injury completing the 24 miles in 24 hours would have been a struggle.

“I have been on the internet forum and it doesn’t appear as though many managed to do the full 24 hours,” he said.

“People were either too exhausted to continue or the cold weather got to them.

“When the sun went down the temperature really dropped and the pool in Guildford got very chilly.”

Mr Knibbs has still managed to raise �200 for Hope for Heroes. You can still donate by visiting bmycharity.com/Alex2swim4life