Swimmers from all walks of life began a marathon swim for gold this morning – not gold medals, but to raise money to help sick kids.

The Brisbane and Gold Coast teams are competing to swim the most “tag team” laps by next Wednesday.

Dom Beattie reports.

TRANSCRIPT

It’s called “Swim4Kids”, and world ocean record holder Trent Grimsey got the challenge underway at QUT’s Gardens point campus.

He swam a block of 30 minutes before tagging another swimmer. It’s no English Channel crossing but it’s for a worthwhile cause.

Trent Grimsey, World ocean record holder: “It was actually really exciting there was so many people lined up and down the pool cheering me on the whole 30 minutes I was swimming so it was very cool to be a part of that.”

With no record of this type ever set, it’s a battle between Brisbane and the Gold Coast – who are also out to make a splash.

Trent Grimsey, World ocean record holder: “The Gold Coast have put together a really good team they have some big names in their team and so dow we we have a lot of great pool swimmers from Brisbane so it’s gonna be pretty exciting.”

Director of “Swim4Kids” Paul Campion says Brisbane will “kick butt” and is happy with the donations so far.

Paul Campion, Swim4Kids. “We’d like to see around 200,000, we’ve got about 30,000 already raised, we’ve just started the swim which is a pretty goood start I think.”

You can donate or register to be a part of this event at www.coueelife.com

Now you don’t have to be an elite swimmer to join in. You can do as many or as few laps as you like because all the money raised goes to helping sick kids.

Dom Beattie, QUT News.