A British teacher has broken the world record for the longest ever freestyle rap.

Daniel Alcon, who performed under his musical alias DAlcon, skipped two nights of sleep during the challenge.

The 35-year-old, who teaches in the Spanish city of Valencia, rapped for 39 hours and 37 minutes to break the world record.

It was his second attempt, having tried once before last year.

Attempting to beat a mark of 33 hours, 33 minutes and 16 seconds set by the American rapper Watsky, he performed for 35 hours – only to discover the record had already been beaten by Liam Reeves, an Irishman, and now stood at more than 36 hours.

He said: “I thought, well, what am I going to do? So I called up my witnesses and said, ‘I’m doing this again, guys, sorry to put you through it’.

“I don’t want to fail like this just by one hour.”

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Under the rules he was allowed 30 seconds to catch his breath between raps, the beats had to be continuous and he was given a five-minute break for every hour rapped.

“I just survived on kiwis, grapes and tea,” Mr Alcon, who is from Wimbledon in southwest London, said.

“Before the challenge, I was nervous but once the challenge started I was a bit like a machine, I just thought get on with it.”

After completing it, Mr Alcon said he felt “very proud” and “relief”.

He attempted the challenge in April and it was subsequently ratified by Guinness World Records.

He has been open about his past struggles with mental health and his motivation for pursuing his world record was a chance to raise awareness of the charity Key Changes.

Its services for musicians range from providing a pop-up music studio for patients experiencing mental health difficulties in hospital, to coaching to help artists overcome performance anxiety.

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