A 9-YEAR-OLD Central California boy braved strong currents and cold water to swim from San Francisco to Alcatraz Island and back.

    KSEE-TV in Fresno reported Tuesday that James Savage set a record as the youngest swimmer to make the journey to the former prison.

    The station reports that by completing the swim, the fourth-grader from Los Banos breaks a record previously held by a 10-year-old boy.

    Savage says that waves in the San Francisco Bay hitting him in the face 30 minutes into his swim made him want to give up.

    “I wanted to turn back and they kept yelling, ‘I believe you can do it’,” Savage told CBS Fresno affiliate KGPE.

    His father says he had offered his son US$100 as a reward; to encourage his struggling son, his father doubled it to US$200.

    Savage pushed forward, making it to Alcatraz and back in a little more than two hours. Alcatraz is over a mile (1.6 km) from the mainland.

    (SD-Agencies)