Friday night’s Impartial Reporter Celebration of Sport award ceremony at the Lough Erne Resort honoured the late, great Ted Keenan as he was named the Americk Webtech Impartial Reporter Sporting Great.

The audience on Friday night saw a clip of Ted setting out on the ‘killer swim’ from Port Patrick in Scotland to Donaghadee in Northern Ireland.

It was merely a three minute glimpse of a swim that was to last over 19 hours in temperatures of minus 10 degrees centigrade and below; a swim that was to ultimately end unsuccessfully as Ted was hauled in for his own safety only a mile from the coast.

The clip, however, showed what the swimming career of Ted Keenan entailed, highlighting his bravery, dedication and talent.

At the end of the clip, Ted’s son and training partner throughout his swimming career, Brian, received the posthumous award on behalf of his late father.

When asked by MC Adrian Logan how he felt watching his father on screen, an emotional Brian admitted: “It’s hard, I’m struggling a bit to be honest, daddy is only gone 16 months.” Brian then revealed a bit about what made his father tick and what got him through his arduous swims and saw him become only the second man in history to swim the English Channel, North Channel and Bristol Channel.

“Tom Hetzel from the USA was the king of the English Channel and he gave daddy a piece of advice he never forgot. As he set out from Shakespeare Beach in 1972 to successfully swim the English Channel, Tom said ‘no matter how hard or tough it gets or how much pain you are in, you have only one day to suffer’. Daddy never forgot that because he knew he was lucky and there were people all over the world who have to suffer every day of their life through illness or hardship,” said Brian.

Indeed, at a sporting gathering including people of all ages and in many disciplines, they are words that can only serve to inspire everyone.

Simply because when the going gets tough, when the odds are stacked against you, whatever your sport, whatever your race, you only have one day to suffer and you can win, you can come out on top and you can prevail.