Youngest woman to complete solo row of Atlantic sets sight on becoming first female to swim length of UK

By Athena Stavrou via SWNS

The youngest woman to complete a solo row of the Atlantic has now sets her sight on becoming the first female to swim the length of the UK.

Jasmine Harrison, 22, will swim 900 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats later this year, a challenge that has only ever been completed by two men.

She will only be able to swim in coordination with the tide, meaning she'll swim for six hours at a time before resting on a boat for six hours.

Jasmine, a swim teacher from Thirsk, England, won't step off the boat for the entire challenge, which she hopes to start in July and complete in around three months.

She will miss one friend's wedding while out at sea, but hopes her supportive mom and her beloved dog will come and visit her on the boat.

Jasmine Harrison set a new world record for the youngest female solo rower to row any ocean after completing the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. (AtlanticCampaigns/PennyBird via SWNS)

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Last year Jasmine became the youngest woman to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean just when she sailed from the Canary Islands to Antigua in 70 days.

She said: “I knew that I wanted to do something to do with swimming for my next challenge because that’s what I’ve done my entire life.

“I have a lot more of a personal connection to swimming.

“For me, it’s more of a mental battle.

"Out in the Atlantic, the quickest way you’re going to get home is by rowing, but if you’re going up the coast of the UK, you can actually stop wherever you want to.

“I want to be given that option to quit and have to beat it and learn more about myself.”

Jasmine was originally going to swim between Greek Islands, but decided to stick with the UK due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

And she said jellyfish stings were one of her main worries about the swim.

Sean Conway, the first man to complete the swim in 2013, suffered ten jelly fish stings to the face and swallowed 50 liters of salt water during his challenge.

Jasmine believes it will be the longest staged swim a woman has ever completed.

She added: “There’s still so much that’s unknown because it’s only been done twice before and both times were very different so no one really knows what to expect.

“At least with the Atlantic row you know where you’re going and once you’re out, you’re out and off you go.

"Whereas this is going to take a lot of organizing throughout the entire thing.

“I was thinking of doing the channel or the width of the UK, but then last year I did a marathon with Sean Conway, who swam the length of Great Britain and I just thought, well why don’t I do that?

“It tied everything together. It was a bit of a moment, a brainwave going why didn’t you just think of that the first time?

“Overall a combination of everything made me want to take this on. Inspiration from the other people that have done it and the fact that I am primarily a swimmer over a rower.”