{"id":5474,"date":"2019-02-11T20:20:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T20:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/?p=5474"},"modified":"2026-03-22T07:50:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T07:50:46","slug":"dorking-swimming-clubs-phil-sears-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/?p=5474","title":{"rendered":"Dorking Swimming Club’s Phil Sears dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dorking Swimming Club coach, masters and open water swimmer Phil Sears has died at the age of 72.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"A member since 1988, he was a long-serving club volunteer who had used his expertise to coach a great many swimmers and triathletes.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a masters swimmer, instantly recognisable with white beard, hoodie and glasses, he competed regularly at club, county and regional meets. He had also swum at the World Masters Championships.<\/span><\/p>\n

An avid open water swimmer, he took part in two successful English Channel crossings. The first was in 2010 as part of a three-man relay under the moniker of The Flying Doctors. The second, Over From Dover, was the year after. He was also an official observer for the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Surrey County ASA treasurer Jim Boucher, who swam with him across the English Channel as part of a six-member relay in 2011, said he was a great figure in masters and open water circles. \u201cI shall miss him a lot,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

His physical endeavours did not stop there. He had competed from club to national championships in modern biathlon; in triathlon at club to Ironman distance. In road and cross-country running, he competed at club level to marathon and national championships.<\/span><\/p>\n

He had served as a Surrey County ASA management committee member and an open water representative on its competition committee for a number of years before having to step down on health grounds.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was ASA level 3 qualified, a RLSS lifesaver, athletics, marathon and strength and conditioning coach. He retired from coaching masters swimming at the end of last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

His funeral will be held at Clandon Wood Nature Reserve & Country Burial Ground<\/a> at 12 noon on Monday 4 March. Wear appropriate footwear for the weather and car-sharing is recommended where possible. No flowers, please.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you would like to make a charitable donation, then do so\u00a0here<\/a>. Money raised will go to the institute researching a treatment for Phil’s rare cancer.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dorking coach, masters and open water swimmer dies after long run-in with cancer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[15,8,14,7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-masters","9":"category-news","10":"category-open-water","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5474"}],"version-history":[{"count":67,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12617,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5474\/revisions\/12617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}