Nine-year-old Chinese girl becomes youngest swimmer to conquer ‘Everest of the Seas’
- Zhou Yihan survives jellyfish attacks and strong currents to complete 26km crossing of Qiongzhou Strait in 13 hours
- Girl set out with group of adult swimmers, a couple of whom were forced to pull out
A nine-year-old Chinese girl has become the youngest person to swim across a strait linking the island province of Hainan with the mainland.
Zhou Yihan, who learned how to swim when she was just a year old, took 13 hours to make the 26km (16-mile) crossing of the Qiongzhou Strait last week, starting from Haikou, the capital of Hainan, and finishing in Xuwen in Guangdong province, mainland media reported.
The girl, a third-grade pupil from Guangzhou, set out with nine adult swimmers at 5.40am on Wednesday last week, only three of whom were able to complete the full crossing.
Yihan had to overcome repeated jellyfish attacks and strong currents that delayed her arrival, news portal Thepaper.cn reported.
The girl was inspired by her father, Zhou Zhenyu, who successfully completed the challenge – known as the “Everest of the Seas” – last year with his daughter travelling alongside him on a support vessel.