Teen plays rugby after seven-hour Bristol Channel swim

A teenage boy who has become one of the youngest people to ever swim the Bristol Channel has said he's still struggling to process it.

The feat took 15-year-old Harrison, from Penarth, in the Vale of Glamorgan, more than seven hours of "non-stop swimming".

"I can’t really believe it happened. I’m absolutely shattered," he said.

Not content with just his more-than-20km (12 mile) swim, Harrison then played a game of rugby the following morning, or at least attempted to.

"I fell asleep on the sideline," he said.

Harrison said he first got the inspiration for the swim after his dad, Chris, told him stories about people having swum the channel previously.

"I had a bit of a stupid mind to say ‘I reckon I could do it’," he told Radio Wales Breakfast.

However, it was only after learning how much training that would be required that Harrison realised what he had signed up for.

On top of the regular swimming he does several times a week anyway, he had to commit to about "four to five months" of extra training to get ready for the big day.

"I had to change my training methods to longer distances and more to swimming in the sea - a completely different experience to the pool," added Harrison.

He began his swim at Penarth Pier, with his destination Clevedon, in Somerset.

"All my mates were down there, supporting me, football coaches, neighbours, loads of people that sponsored me, family," he said.

"It was really nice to see, it drove me on throughout the swim."

Roughly every half an hour Harrison said he would eat two jelly babies and some “horrible maltodextrin" to keep him going.

“It gave me energy [but] it made be sick, because obviously you’d have particles of seawater getting mixed in with it," he said.

“It was pretty much seven hours of non-stop swimming.”

Dad Chris said Harrison's achievement was "fantastic", adding that the family did not know he was one of the youngest to ever complete the swim until afterwards.