Teen plans Cook Strait challenge

Canadian-born 13-year-old Stephanie Bennington has adopted the "Kiwis can do anything" attitude with a goal of becoming the youngest female to swim Cook Strait.

The attempt is set for sometime during the first two weeks next month, when weather and sea conditions would be favourable.

The direction of the 26-kilometre swim will be decided on the day of the attempt.

When the Bennington family arrived in Wellington from Cranbrook, Canada, four years ago, Stephanie was an inexperienced but enthusiastic swimmer.

BIG SPLASH: Stephanie Bennington, 13, wants to be the youngest female to swim Cook Strait. She is to make her attempt next month.

Photo: KENT BLECHYNDEN/DOMINION POST

Her love of water sports took off after she joined the Capital Swim Club and the Lyall Bay Surf Lifesaving Club.

"I started becoming a long-distance swimmer in the pool and my coach (Gary Hurring) told me that crossing the Cook Strait was a realistic goal for me," the year 9 Wellington High School pupil said.

Now her swimming credentials have risen to the point where she is set to eclipse the record of the youngest female swimmer to cross the strait - Kiwi Kate Johns, who was 14 years, five months and five days old when she completed her north-to-south swim on March 16, 2001.

Stephanie turns 14 in November.

Hurring is sure that Stephanie, who was third in February's Kapiti Island-to-Mainland Swim, has the ability to complete the crossing.

"Stephanie has been excelling in recent ocean swims and I am confident that she can challenge the Cook Strait and win."

Swimming through big waves during the eight-to-12-hour crossing is Stephanie's biggest fear.

She was inspired by the exploits of United States swimmer Lynne Cox, who was the first woman to conquer Cook Strait in 1975.

Cox has gone on to feats such as being the first to swim around the Cape of Good Hope.

"I am inspired by the way she looks for new challenges ... I think I share her sense of adventure," Stephanie said.

Another inspiration was Kiwi swimmer Phillip Rush, who made two double crossings of Cook Strait.

He helped plan her swim and would be on her support craft.

Stephanie hopes the crossing will be the first of many long-distance swims.

She has crossed Cook Strait before - as part of a 13-strong Lyall Bay Surf Lifesaving "nippers" team that paddled across the strait on surf rescue boards in December 2005.

The youngest male to cross Cook Strait was 11-year-old Indian Aditya Raut, who took 9hrs 9min in February 2005.