British Rowing announce Row to the Moon challenge

Following the huge success of the recent One Minute Challenge, British Rowing, RowingCanada Aviron, Rowing Australia and Rowing New Zealand are today announcing the launchof the Row to the Moon challenge. The initiative invites indoor rowers worldwide to logtheir training metres on a bespoke online platform with the shared goal of accumulating, asone singular community, 384.4 million metres - the distance from Earth to the Moon.

The motivation behind this challenge comes from the phenomenal uptake of the One MinuteChallenge, which ran from 8-11 May and was organised in partnership between the fournational rowing federations. The extremely popular initiative challenged anyone with arowing machine at home to see how far they could row in one minute, and saw over 2,300rowers participate across the four nations, with more than half of that number made up byindoor rowers from Great Britain.

Alongside the excellent participation, the One Minute Challenge also saw 19 Concept2World Records and 21 Concept2 British World Records unofficially broken, all of which arecurrently being verified by Concept2. Among the new British Records was Lauren RowlesMBE, current Paralympic and World Rowing Champion in the PR2 Mix2x, who said: "It wasawesome to see so many people at home getting involved in the One Minute Challenge."

"There's been a real community spirit through the rowing world during lockdown and it'sbeen great to see us all come together and take on these challenges from our homes. Thisnew challenge gives us another exciting target to work towards as a team and keeps thatcompetitive spirit alive."

The challenge will run for ten days, starting at 06.00 on Thursday 21 May 2020 (BST) andfinishing at 06.00 on Sunday 31 May 2020 (BST), and will give members of the public theopportunity to participate alongside rowers from each nation’s Olympic and Paralympicteams.

Throughout the duration of the global challenge, participants will be asked to upload all ofthe distance they cover on the rowing machine on a live, real-time web platform, addingsessions as regularly as they like and nominating friends on social media to join them in thechallenge. The web platform is open for pre-registration now, and participants will then beable to begin logging their training metres from 06.00 on Thursday 21 May 2020 (BST).

Building on the momentum of the One Minute Challenge, the four nations are opening theRow to the Moon challenge up to participants globally, with each rower able to log theirmetres to their specific nation whilst contributing to the global tally. The Row to the Moonchallenge also builds on the inclusive nature of the One Minute Challenge, offering 17adaptive (disability) rowing categories to which users can upload their progress andcontribute towards the combined total.

Also looking forward to the Row to the Moon challenge is Olympia Aldersey, 2019 WorldChampion in the Australian Women’s Four: "It’s awesome that the four nations arecombining again for a challenge and this one really is taking it to the next level. Australiansare proud to have played their part in broadcasting the first pictures of Neil Armstrong, andthe crew of Apollo 11, as they walked on the moon back in 1969, so I know we’ll all cometogether on this challenge to send an erg into space! Indoor Rowing really is for everyone,not just elite athletes, so I encourage everyone to take part, no contribution is too littlewhen we’ve 384.4 million metres to complete to get us there!"

The sentiment was echoed by Canada’s Andrew Todd, two-time PR3 M2- World Champion(2018 & 2019), who said: "It's great to see a sense of teamwork and connection amongstvarious rowing nations to work together towards a common goal during this time of physicaland social distancing due to COVID-19. It can be very lonely and difficult for people rightnow with so much uncertainty and it is really cool to see Canada join forces coast to coastand with other countries around the world to collectively Row to the Moon. Indoor rowingis a staple to my training in isolation right now as it seems to be for so many other rowersaround the world so it is really special to try and add some special purpose and togethernessto our training."

2019 World Champion in the New Zealand Women’s Eight, Lucy Spoors is back training onthe water but excited for the indoor event’s launch: "The New Zealand women’s sweepsquad are relieved to be back training alongside each other at Lake Karapiro, but we have allenjoyed the camaraderie that arose across our sport internationally throughout ourrespective lockdowns. We’re excited to once again take part in an event alongside not onlyour domestic rowing community, but also our competitors and the international rowingcommunity.’’

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