Four-man crew breaks Black Sea rowing record

Dr Longman (second from the left) said achieving the target had been a fantastic feeling

A crew including a university lecturer has broken the world record for rowing across the Black Sea.

Dr Danny Longman, from Loughborough University, Leicestershire, completed the challenge with Roland Burr, Alex Dumbrava and Gregg Botterman.

The team covered the 745-mile (1,200km) distance between Romania and Georgia in nine days, 18 hours, beating the previous record of 11 days, six hours.

The Guinness World Records have been contacted for a comment.

The crew plan to get together to celebrate their achievement later in the year

Dr Longman, 36, said: "Obviously we were timing the trip ourselves, but we got the official approval from Guinness world records just last week, which was a nice endorsement.

"They have quite stringent criteria in place to to ratify records."

The team came together after Romanian rower Alex Dumbrava - one of the previous record holders - put out an advert online asking for a team to help him set a new record.

"I found that, as did the others, and kind of applied for a position within the team," said Dr Longman, a previous rower at Cambridge who already holds eight world records.

"It was a part of the world that I knew absolutely nothing about.

"Having the opportunity to see it first-hand from a boat seemed like a great idea."

The crew did not sleep for much more than an hour at a time during the nine-day challenge

The group trained for six months before setting off on the challenge in June 2022.

The team rowed with a two-hour shift pattern, day and night, meaning they did not sleep for more than 60 or 70 minutes during the row.

Dr Longman said: "We had quite bit of bad weather and a number of storms.

"We had winds pushing us backwards, waves crashing over the boat - which led to quite a bit of sea sickness - and rowing through torrential rain and lightning through the middle of the night was obviously a bit challenging.

"We we also had a bit of a run-in with the Turkish coastguard, which was running a military exercise at the time.

"But there were really beautiful moments as well, like the the night sky, for example, when it was clear.

"We saw a shooting star shower one night which was absolutely stunning.

"And we have dolphins swim next to the boat most days as well."

Dr Longman (second from left) said the team had got stuck into the challenge

He said it had been a "fantastic feeling" to achieve the target but added the situation in the region had grown "incredibly sad" since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"We we met people from all over the the Black Sea while we were there, both before and after the expedition, and for an area that you've seen first hand to descend into such violent conflict is incredibly upsetting," he said.

"We hope, as the rest of the world does, that that situation can resolve itself as soon as possible."

The team faced stormy weather but said there were beautiful moments during the challenge

Dr Longman, a lecturer in physiology, said Loughborough University had been very supportive of the voyage and he said hoped to celebrate the record with the rest of the team later in the year.

Mr Dumbrava said: "It was a great experience to team up with Danny, Roland and Gregg.

"The sole fact that the day after arrival we were making plans for future adventures together is the best proof that not only did we succeed in our endeavours but had a really great time together."