Members of the University of Calgary’s Dinos women’s rowing team have unofficially broken a world record, rowing one million metres consecutively on an indoor rowing machine.
The women began their relay row at 8 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 17 and finished just after 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 20, rowing for just over 70 hours.
The aim of the Dinos Women Million Meter Challenge was to break a world record in Concept2‘s large team million-meter row, in the category of women ages 20-29.
The current world record in that category was set by a team of 20 women from New Zealand in 2016, in which they rowed for 86 hours and 11 minutes.
The team also used the challenge as a way to fundraise, setting a goal of $5,000.
“Half of the proceeds from this event will go to support the organization Fast and Female — which promotes sport and activity for young women and girls — while the other half supports Dinos Rowing,” a news release explained.
Video of the athletes competing the million-metre challenge, as well as data from the Concept2 indoor rower, will be submitted to officials to verify they successfully broke the previous record.
Members of the team include co-captains Courtney Kruschel and Rebecca Fung, Andrea Ornawaka, Hannah Anderson, Anna Bender, Carli Klapstein, Asha Bansal, Arianna Mamer, Claire O’Brien, Catherine Ohler and Taylor White.