MEMBERS of Ruthin Rays swimming club have been taking part in an epic challenge in memory of a dear friend who died in 2018.

The club is aiming to raise £500 in memory of much-missed former head coach Chris Clements, as well as to be able to provide new diving blocks for its young swimmers to continue progressing at the club - with £250 going to each cause.

The Ruthin Rays swimmers and their families may not yet be able to get into the pool for training, but that hasn't stopped them setting goals to keep them motivated, fit and healthy during the coronavirus lockdown.

As part of their fundraising challenge, club members have been and will be walking, running and cycling the distance (9,511km or 5,909 miles) to the Olympic village in Tokyo, Japan, during the course of five weeks.

Denbighshire Free Press:

They are planning to do this in time for July 25, which had been the planned start of the swimming events for Tokyo 2020 before it was called off due to the pandemic.

Ruthin Rays head coach Andrea Harvey said: "As we have a personal link to the Macmillan Cancer Support charity, we wanted to raise money for them in memory of the much missed Head Coach Chris Clements who sadly passed away in 2018, along with fund raising for our new diving blocks to continue progressing our young Olympians of the future.

"As a competitive swimming club serving our local community and successfully coaching our athletes to National competition level we need the right equipment. Diving blocks are vital for training and we need four of these."

In the first two weeks of their challenge, Rays' swimmers have already covered 4259.25km, 1367.75km of which was walked, 554km was ran and 2373.5km was cycled. To donate to the Ruthin Rays cause, visit: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ruthin-rays-tokyo