Thousands of swimmers set off from Cottesloe Beach early on Saturday morning, taking part in the 33rd annual Rottnest Channel Swim.
Four records were smashed in the near-perfect conditions – swimmers broke the male solo, female solo, male duo and team records.
Emotions ran high after swimmers finished the 20-kilometre swim.
The event covered a total of 19.7 kilometres, between Cottesloe Beach and Thomson Bay on Rottnest Island, and participants had the option of traversing the distance in teams of four, duos or as a solo swimmer.
Swimmers ranged from 14 to 78 years old, with just under half swimming the race for the first time. Thousands were waiting at Rottnest Island to cheer the swimmers in.
Queenslander Bailey Armstrong came in first in the men’s solo event, and completed the swim in three hours, 48 minutes and 11 seconds, smashing the previous record out of the water.
But he was not the only one. The first four male soloists all broke the record, which sat at close to four hours.
Swimmers headed off in different groups from Cottesloe.
WA swimmer Chloe Truscott also broke the women’s record, finishing in four hours, 14 minutes and 31 seconds, beating the previous record by around seven minutes.
The second female across the line was Maddison Armstrong, who also broke the previous record.
Duo ‘The Hungry Boys’, consisting of Jack Wilson and Kaiden Richings, won their race, beating the former record by close to 15 minutes.
And four high-profile swimmers, who have competed in the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, Mack Horton, Cody Simpson, Josh Edwards-Smith and Bowen Gough, also broke the team record by around three minutes.
Olympian Cody Simpson and his teammates beat the record for the fastest team swim.
Rottnest Channel Swim Association President Kirsty Bellombra said the event was an incredible success.
“Today was an incredible day with perfect conditions resulting in not only four records being broken, but so many of our participants achieving personal best times,” she said.