A 13-year-old boy swims from Sri Lanka to India in 13 hours

In a bid to create awareness of autism, 13-year-old Jiya Rai from Mumbai swam from Sri Lanka’s Thalaimannar to Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu.

The swimmer, who took 13 hours and five minutes to complete her expedition, was received by a large gathering at the Indian shore led by Tamil Nadu Director General of Police C. A swimmer himself, the DGP, who had performed a similar feat with his team members in the recent past in the Palk Straits, told reporters that Ms. Jiya Rai, daughter of Madan Rai of the Indian Navy, had brought laurels to the country by swimming from Sri Lanka to Indian waters.

According to her father, Jiya Rai had earlier achieved a world record by swimming from Worli Sea Link in Bandra Mumbai to Gateway of India in about eight hours and 40 minutes, which won her the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar award, the highest honour for a citizen below 18 years in the country.

Jiya had taken up the swimming expedition to create awareness about autism. Hailing from Mumbai, Jiya has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) but that didn’t stop her from achieving several feats in swimming.