EIGHTEEN-year-old Jordan Harkins, one of the 2600 athletes taking on this weekend’s Rottnest swim, has his sights set on top ten placing.

The South32 Rottnest swim, now in its 34th year, will be hosted on Saturday, February 24, with participants to begin the 19.7km open water swim from Cottesloe beach.

Mr Harkins, originally from Sydney, started competitively swimming when he was seven-years-old and competed in his first 2km open water race when he was 10.

He has since competed in numerous open water events over east but put his training on hold while he focused on his studies.

Mr Harkins’ training for the event began three months ago, just prior to moving to Bassendean, and since then has been training by swimming up to 8km, eight to 10 times a week.

Of the 2600 participants of this year’s swim, 52 per cent have successfully crossed the channel before, while 48 per cent are first timers.

Solo participants had to complete a 10km qualifying swim, with those fastest men and women being placed in the ‘champions of the channel’. These 20 elite athletes, 10 men and 10 women, will start 10 minutes earlier and will wear gold swimming caps to differentiate them from the other participants.

Although this is Mr Harkins’ first attempt at the 19.7km open water crossing, he qualified ninth in the men’s ‘champions of the channel’ division, with a 10km time of around two hours and five minutes.

With plenty of experience in open water distances up to 10km, he said he hopes to complete the race in just over four hours if the conditions are right. His strategy is to pace himself for the first 10-15km, as he doesn’t want to run out of steam before the final stretch.

“In terms of placing I’m thinking anywhere in the top 10 would be good, but I’m not really sure who I’m competing against, so it depends on that.”

He said he isn’t aiming for a particular time because the race is so weather dependent – bad conditions could add another hour to all the participants times.