Dover Rowing Club have completed their 4th virtual race of 7914km from Hawaii to Papua New Guinea. Racing against their Coast Amateur Rowing Association opponents Dover finished in 4th place after a neck and neck race with Bexhill. Dover’s finish secured 1st place amongst those completing the Trans-Atlantic and Pacific challenge.

The race saw Shoreham and Herne Bay power away from the 5 remaining squads, with Shoreham taking the win. Bexhill, Deal and Dover flipped flopped between the 3rd, 4th and 5th positions until a big drop of 600km by Bexhill when the clubs had completed two thirds of the course seeing them leap ahead. Whilst Dover knuckled down for the pursuit, Deal would gradually fall away. Dover’s charge was briefly stalled by the port authorities understandable decision to suspend water activity in the harbour following a positive e-coli water quality test. Dover’s members continued to log their rows, ergo, walks, runs, cycles and workouts as they closed down Bexhill. Dover had moved to within less than 100km when Bexhill claimed third and completed the course the same day.
When Dover crossed the line, they had 3 competitors within the top ten overall with Adrian Callard as leading man with 1097km from his multi-disciplined approach and Maria West-Burrows as the club’s leading lady with 695km contributed by walking and rowing. David Newman was second for Dover with 797km and was third overall for ergo (rowing machine) distance with 382km completing his personal challenge 1000km on the ergo during the event. Chrissy Purvis, Jo Johnston, Heather Corby and Kate Day weighed in with contributions of over 250km whilst the men’s division had Tony Burrows, Matt Barnett, Jon Osborn and Cameron Mackintosh above the 250km mark.
The junior section was led by Ella Day with 215km and Bo Corby at 145km with valuable contributions from Emma Oliver, Emma Spanton, Morgan Evans, Safia Corby, Scarlett Durnham-Burrows, Sebastian Steele and SJ Bamfield.
There were regular contributions from Alfie Gardner, Chris Hall, Chris Price, Jen Jordan, Jacky Silk, Jon Cook, Lorna Florence Clay, Marie Cockerell, Nick Bailey, Paul Scrivener, Saffron Walmsley-Preece, Steve Woods and Tom Stothart.
As the remaining teams move towards the finish Dover awaits confirmation of their next challenge.