Videos: Oxfordshire ‘Tri-Baby’ raises more than £1,350 – after completing triathlon, aged 4

A young boy from Didcot in Oxfordshire last weekend completed a triathlon which to a grown-up may sound like a picnic, but to a four-year-old is anything but, and in the process he has raised more than £1,000 for charity.

William De Croos swam 40 metres at the Park Club in Milton, near Abingdon, rode his bike – complete with stabilisers – for a mile in the grounds of Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, then headed to the Sir Roger Bannister athletics track on Oxford’s Iffley Road for 800 metres to complete the challenge.

The three separate venues meant that William didn’t have to go through those fiddly transition stages that can catch first-time triathletes on the hop, and also gave him a bit of recovery time, but given his age, we think that’s allowable.

He told BBC Radio Oxford: "I did some running, I did some cycling and I did swimming all the way from one side to the other."

The youngster has been raising money for the Special Care Baby Unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where he himself was treated for low blood sugar as a baby, and the armed forces charity, Combat Stress.

His mother Rebecca said that he had undertaken the challenge to say a "big thank you" to the staff at the hospital who had looked after him.

"It was to celebrate him being fit and well. We said we'd never forget them," she added.

At the time of writing, he has raised more than £1,350 through his account on Virgin Giving and other donations, with £250 arriving from RBS this morning.

Ahead of his exploits at the weekend, which were recorded on both Facebook and Twitter, William’s parents shot a charming video of him running through his training. The content and soundtrack may seem familiar.

And here’s the original, which is always worth a rewatch.