AN AMATEUR IRISH swimmer has become the first in the world to complete a gruelling swim of seven open water channels.

Steve Redmond, 46, has become the first person to complete the Oceans7 Challenge that he set himself three years ago. He says it is considered to be the swimming equivalent of climbing the seven summits.

Redmond, who is from Ballydehob in West Cork, crossed the Tsugaru Strait in Japan yesterday evening in a time of 14 hours and 24 minutes.

The 20-kilometre swim was one of seven he undertook in order to complete the Oceans7 challenge which involves swimming seven channels of varying distances and difficulties.

Speaking about his challenge earlier this year, Redmond said: “It’s a very Irish thing. You tell an Irish person they can’t do something and they’ll do everything they can to prove you wrong.”

Redmond swam the English Channel between England and France in August 2009, followed by the North Channel between Scotland and Northern Ireland a year later.

In May 2011 he swam the Gibraltar Strait between Spain and Morocco and then in October of that year he swam the Catalina Channel off California.

He followed that up last February with a swim of the Molokai Channel in Hawaii and then the Cook Strait between the north and south islands of New Zealand the same month.

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Redmond completed the challenge with his 20km swim of the Tsugaru Strait in Japan yesterday.

He will return home to Cork Airport tomorrow evening at 7.45pm.