A former Hong Kong teenage cricketer hopes to become the first person to run 574km (356.7 miles) down the length of Sri Lanka over the Christmas period, in a bid to raise funds for children with cancer.

Rahul Sharma, 24, will test his endurance by starting from the town of Point Pedro in the country’s north on Christmas Eve and reaching Dondra Head in the south by December 30.

“Having done three marathons this year, my goal was that I wanted to do something big and a bit out of the box,” the athlete said.

Sharma said the challenge had not been attempted before, adding that he planned to run about 100km a day.

“When you go into the unknown, you can come across a lot of different feelings. That really excites me.”

Sharma, who works as an exercise physiologist in Melbourne, said the trip was part of his efforts to raise at least A$20,000 (US$13,100) for the Children’s Cancer Institute, a Sydney-based research organisation dedicated to curing childhood cancer.