35-year-old swimmer Ryan Leung Chun-hay has made history as the first Hongkonger to successfully swim across the North Channel. The 35-kilometre strait lies between the northeast of Northern Ireland and southwestern Scotland, and Leung completed the challenge in 14 hours and five minutes, with his record certified by the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association.
Of the waterways in the UK that are regularly swum, the North Channel is one of the most difficult to tackle. It is certainly the hardest to swim among the Oceans Seven challenge, which is a marathon of seven open-water channel swims including the Moloka’i Channel and the Strait of Gibraltar – the swimming equivalent of the Seven Summits mountaineering challenge.
The swimmer reportedly struggled the most during the fourth hour of his journey, when he had to swim through waters as cold as 11 degrees Celsius. Changes in water flow also meant that he had to swim against the tide, spending “more than three hours to accomplish the last seven kilometres”.
Leung is also making a difference by swimming the North Channel as a way to raise funds for the Child Development Initiative Alliance, which supports underprivileged youths in Hong Kong. He says, “I hope to encourage young people not to give up, to maximise their potential, and to inspire them to explore their aspirations and turn impossible dreams into possibilities.” You can support Leung’s fundraising efforts on his SimplyGiving page.
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