A watertight victory for the first holders of the RBC Challenge Cup

James Qualtrough | May 3, 2012 | 0 Comments

A team from PricewaterhouseCoopers are the 2012 winners of the RBC Challenge Cup, a corporate trophy awarded for the first time following the Swimarathon. Event sponsors RBC Wealth Management presented the award to the team who made a big splash by clocking up 106 laps in the pool at Les Quennevais.

For the first time this year, Island businesses taking part in the Swimarathon were challenged to swim the highest number of laps for a chance to win the new trophy, plus an extra £500 towards their fundraising total. Team ‘PwC Experience’ will hold the title for the next year until it goes up for grabs again at the 2013 Swimarathon.

Team captain Tori Shenton explained that they had their sights on the cup from the outset. ‘The Swimarathon has become a key event in the community calendar for us and we always have plenty of eager swimmers ready to give it their best. When I heard about the RBC Challenge Cup, I thought we had a good chance of winning. I pulled together our best swimmers including a couple of water polo players and a triathlon athlete. We were really pleased with our lap count and are thrilled to have won the cup.’

The team also tallied up an impressive fundraising total. ‘It’s been a great team effort in and out of the pool. With the boost to our sponsorship total from RBC Wealth Management’s trophy award, plus our match-giving donation from PwC which doubled our total, we raised £2,322.60 for the Lions Club of Jersey,’ said Tori.’

Chris Blampied, Managing Director, Royal Bank of Canada (Channel Islands) Limited, said:
‘The RBC Challenge Cup was launched as just that – a challenge from one corporate to another to get behind the Swimarathon and pull out all the stops to achieve a great lap count. PwC Experience has certainly done that in spectacular style – an incredible number of laps and a fabulous fundraising total.’

President of the Lions Club of Jersey, Lion Mike Labey, said: ‘The presentation of the RBC Challenge Cup marks another way in which our long-term sponsors, RBC Wealth Management, continue to support our fundraising endeavours, and we welcome this wholeheartedly. The business community has always been fantastically supportive and we congratulate PwC Experience on their achievement this year.’

The 2012 Swimarathon took place in March at Les Quennevais Sports Centre when up to 4,000 swimmers took to the pool in tribute of the late Hannah Johnson, the 2009 Young Ambassador for the Lions Club of Jersey. With the support of Islanders, they helped to raise £141,000, the lion’s share of which will benefit Jersey’s young people in the form of grants to a diverse range of youth clubs, organisations and projects.