Continuous rowing record set in Wanganui

ROWING TO RECORDS: Darren Whetton (left) and Grant Satherley on their tandem rowing machines, watched by Ralph Visser.PHOTO/BEVAN CONLEY

They did it.

Fourteen members of the Whanganui Prison staff will receive a certificate they can keep for life from the Concept2 organisation after they set three new world records on their indoor rowing machines at the Marist rugby clubrooms in the early hours of yesterday morning.

A 10-person crew completed a million metres of rowing in 80 hours, 50 minutes, after starting at 9am on Monday, which was a vacant record where they have now set the official fastest time to beat.

"They've set a mark for someone to have a crack at with a small team," said Shane Flynn.

Both of the tandem crews have also set new records for the longest continuous tandem row for male heavyweights in their age group.

Ralph Visser and Grant Satherley beat the mark for 40-49 year olds at 1.53am, while Flynn and Darren Whetton surpassed the 30-39 year record just over 20 minutes later.

Flynn said after they reached the milestone at 2.17am, they continued on till 2.30am, just to be sure.

"You don't want to go that far and find out you read a number wrong.

"We just about had a heart attack at 12am, I tore something in my knee.

"If it had happened with 12 hours to go, we would have been toast."

Putting his hurt leg on the side of the machine, Flynn switched to shorter 15-minute rotations on his turns, with Whetton handling the rest of the remaining time.

Despite the knee injury, which he was getting checked out at the doctor's after six hours' sleep yesterday afternoon, Flynn proudly said he had "never been better".

"Your body's really got no limit to it. It's a matter of what your mind tells your body it can do or can't do," he said.

"Ralph and Grant went hard - they just went absolutely mental."

Still, the effort had taken a toll, Flynn talked about being "sore and drained" and becoming disoriented as to where the sides of the clubroom were.

When completing his record, Visser went outside the small building for the first time in three days.

The teams boxed up their results and log books in a locked brief case, which will be sent off to the Concept2 headquarters in England for verification.

Concept2 will be able to match the electronic data from the machines with the books and statements from witnesses .

Flynn said it is straightforward to prove because if the rowing machines had stopped at any time, the counters would have reset.

Once confirmed, Concept2 will send them certificates confirming their achievement and the results will be added to the Concept2 company website.

"It takes three to four weeks. We were in no hurry, we know everything was legitimate," said Flynn.

The staff will now regroup and find another challenge which they will take on next year, Flynn added.

The 10-person team which broke the million metre mark are: Cole Broughton, Thomas Sinton, Gene Peni, Eliesa Nixon, Vince Collins, Carl Priddle, Martha Hura, Pam Burr, Jarrod Hook.