34 duos, and 135 teams for a total of 660 swimmers. David O'Brien was winner, with Brian Parker second, and Shelley Taylor-Smith third. The RCSA president was John Guilfoyle. In 1998 the Rottnest Channel Swim had 1,150 participants, and officially became the world's biggest open water swimming event. Notable landmarks - 2000 to 2019 In 2001, the history books were re-written when 2,022 people swam the Channel. The Channel Swim had grown so large, an event management consultant was hired to assist volunteers in running the event. Royal Life Saving WA began assisting the RCSA. It was this year that Travis and Jarrad Nederpelt set the duo race record with a time of 3:55:54. In 2004 swimmers began to be put into categories, with only 100 allowed to start at a time. The team record was also lowered to 3:43:02. Due to the popularity of the race, and the number of support boats for the now 2,300 entrants, a ballot has been held since 2006 to limit the number of participants in the water at the same time. In 2007, the race was cancelled due to poor weather conditions caused by cyclonic activity in the north west of Western Australia. It remains the event's only cancellation in its history. In 2013, swimsuit regulations were introduced which comply with FINA's open water swimming rules. The RCSA was successful in increasing the number of boats in the water on event day which resulted in more swimmers participating. All finishing swimmers completed the swim well before the final cut-off time and earlier than the 2012 event. In 2014, the first Welcome to Country was conducted by Ingrid Comming at the pre-race briefing held at Challenge Stadium (now HBF Stadium) and Professor Len Collard performed a second ceremony at Cottesloe Beach on race day. In 2015, the swim celebrated its 25th anniversary, with one of the highlights being the release of a commemorative book. With the event outgrowing the finish line at the Hotel Jetty, the finish was relocated to the grassed area near the Fuel Jetty, which required a 20m ramp to be built over the dunes. In 2016, the inaugural Champions of the Channel event was held, with Ben Freeman as the first male solo in 4:18:28 and Jaime Bowler as first female solo in 4:42:16. The Premier of Western Australia, the Hon. Colin Barnett, celebrated his 20th year as the official