A languages teacher has broken the record for swimming round the Isle of Man.

Carole Laporte completed the challenge in a time of 29 hours, 25 minutes and 53 seconds which beat the previous record by more than six hours.

Miss Laporte, a languages teacher at St Ninian’s, started swimming on August 3 from Niarbyl and completed the 122km loop in 17 days after swimming for a couple of hours a day.

Carole faced a variety of different obstacles on her swim but the biggest obstacle was the psychological test it provided: ’My fitness was fine but mentally it was hard.

’The best part of the swim was the amount of people that helped support me while I was swimming, having the support and all those people come out and watch was so important.

’It never would’ve happened without all the people who came to see me - it brought tears to my eyes.’

Miss Laporte would like to thank Steve Watts and the team of kayakers as they were instrumental in helping her plan each leg, keeping watch on tides and the weather warnings.

Having broken the record, Miss Laporte said she will not be doing it again and instead said she will find another challenge to complete.

Only three other people have achieved this feat, the first being Mercedes Gleitze in 1930, Anna-Carin Nordin in 2018 and Mike Davies a year later in 2019.

Nordin held the previous women’s record of 36 hours.