A GROUP of soldiers are set to take on the “world’s toughest row” across the Atlantic Ocean.
The four Army physical training instructors are due to take part in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Rowing Challenge – a 3,000-mile rowing race.
The challenge will see competitors row from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to English Harbour on Antigua in the Caribbean.
The team of soldiers was recently unveiled at Baker Barracks in Thorney Island, near Chichester.
The team is made up from members of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps - Captain Scott Pollock, Warrant Officer Class 1 Victoria Blackburn, Staff Sergeant Phillip Welch and Sergeant Laura Barrigan.
The 3,000-mile-long race begins in December.
The team will row in shifts of two hours on and two hours off, 24 hours a day for more than a month.
An Army spokesman said: “The challenge is a staggering feat of endurance that will examine the four rowers’ physical capability and test their mental resilience in the extreme.
“The isolation, salt sores, blisters, sleep deprivation and the sheer physical demands placed on their bodies will ask questions of them they will never have encountered, and probably never will again.”
Each team that participates in the challenge will row in excess of 1.5 million oar strokes in a 8.5 metre boat.
There will be two safety yachts supporting the teams as they cross the ocean.
The organisers of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Rowing Challenge said more people have climbed Everest than rowed an ocean.
Over €6 million has been raised for charities across the world over the past four races.
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