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Atlantic rowing race winners set pairs world record, Mark Slats bags another Guinness accolade as duo beat all the fours
- A pair of rowers win the race, beating even the four-person teams, and take days off the former pairs record
- Mark Slats is also the solo record holder, which he achieved in the 2017-18 race
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A pair of rowers won the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge in world record time. The performance by Mark Slats and Kai Weidmer in team Row4Cancer is doubly impressive as they beat all the four-person teams despite having half the rowing manpower.
The Dutch pair arrived in Antigua after 32 days and 22 hours, 13 minutes having left from La Gomera on December 12. That is five days quicker than the former pairs record set in the 2017-18 race by Dave Spelman and Max Thorpe in team Resilient: X.
The fact a pair beat all the fours would be more surprising if Slats did not have a pedigree. In 2017-18, he set the solo world record at 30 days, taking 19 days off the former record. He was just 17 hours behind that year’s race winners and overall world record setters, the Four Oarsmen.
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When Slats last arrived in Antigua in 2018, the crowds cheered. It was a strange atmosphere this year, with social-distancing and masks.
“The hardest thing was wiping your butt,” Weidmer joked.
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