MADURAI: Swimming his way into the record books, a 14-year-old boy from Theni, NA Snehan, became the youngest ever person to cross the North Channel, which lies between Northern Ireland and Scotland on September 20. The achievement has been recognized by Universal Records Forum.
The Class 9 boy started to brave the waves at the age of eight. His coach, M Vijayakumar, said Snehan started to swim from Robbies Island in Northern Ireland at 6 am on September 20, along with six of his teammates. "Snehan took 14 hours and 39 minutes to complete the 35 km swim. At around 9:09 pm, he reached Portpatrick in Scotland. During the course of the swim, the temperature was 14 degrees and the sea became rough midway. Further, the presence of jellyfish made life difficult for us," said the coach.
When asked about the preparation before the big day, Vijayakumar said the coaching period was for around 20 days from September 2 at Donaghadee Harbour in the capital of Northern Island, Belfast. "Snehan swam from Dhanushkodi to Talaimannar and back to Dhanushkodi, which was around 60 km, on March 28-29. He created a record for being the youngest to swim in this stretch," he added.
Expressing his happiness, Snehan thanked his parents-- N Neethirajan and N Anusha-- for their support. Along with his coach, he has now set his sight on the English channel between England and France for next year.