THE ATLANTIK CHALLENGE

CONGRATULATIONS TO JOSEPH AND PASCAL FOR THE SECOND FASTEST OCEAN ROW IN HISTORY!!

(49 DAYS 7 HRS)

RACE News 30 November 1997 1715 GMT


Quarter of an hour ago, Atlantik Challenge crossed the finish line in the Longest Rowing Race Ever staged, putting them in second position. Their finishing time of 0100 (local time) means that their total crossing took 49 days and 7 hours to complete. They were both going through customs as we got the news. More updates on their journey tomorrow.

Pascal Blond and Joseph Le Guen in Tenerife

    (WIRE SERVICE STORY)   Pascal Blond is a Frenchman with broad shoulders and a bull-like neck who was released from jail last month after serving 14 years for murder, Next Sunday he begins another sort of confinement, when he sets off from Tenerife in a plywood rowing boat on a 3,000-mile boyage across the Atlantic to Barbados.

     Blond's decision to take part in one of the world's most gruelling races is being backed be the French authorities as a way of helping  him win back his self-esteem after all the years spent behind bars. "I chose Pascal to partner me because I have complete confidence in him," said Joseph Le Guen, a veteran oarsmen from Brittany who will accompany him on the 23ft by 6ft boat. :Some people find it odd that I have chosen a convicted murderer to row across the Atlantic with, but I look on Pascal as antoher human being, not a criminal. The race will give him a unique opportunity to gain respect and dignity."

     The boat, which will be home to the two men for several months, was assembled from a kit by 12 inmates of the French high security prison at Moulins. Prison authorities were so enthusiastic about the idea that they financed the entire construction. The race is the creation of Sir Chay Blyth who, as a young parachute regiment sergeant, rowed across the Atlantic in 1966 with Captain John Ridgway. Thirty identical boats, each with a crew of two, will be lining up for the start.

     Altough competitors from around the globe will be taking part, most are British. They have paid entry costs of at least 30,000 pounds and include Jan Meek, a former mayor of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, who will be partnered by her son Daniel, a 23-year-old officer cadet at Sandhurst.

     Blond's long imprisonment for killing two men in brawls, one with a knife and the other with his fists, taught him how to look after himself. In prison, he also learnt how to deal with the loneliness and deprivation he is likely to face  on the journey. When his fellow inmates first heard of the plan, they thought it was a joke. But they soon became fascinated by the project and when they had finished the boat they named it Atlantik Challenge, toasting it with orange juice.

     The Atlantic will certainly be an impressive arena for adventure, but the demands on the rowers will be considerable. "For me, the essential is not winning but reaching the finishing line and being able to shake hands in friendship," said Le Guen, who rowed across the Atlantic on his own in 1995. "But I can assure you we French always like to win--and we will be rowing like hell to beat the English