The world record for ‘continuous rowing on an ergometer in a large team’ was previously held by the St Peter’s College Boat Club of Oxford University. They achieved this record in  February of last year, rowing for exactly 10 days in a row. Earlier today, however, Oxford had to relinquish its title, as Thêta successfully broke its record.

7 hours longer

The moment came this afternoon at 1 pm – exactly ten days after the record attempt kicked off. By rowing past the ten-day mark, Thêta officially became the new record holder for continuous rowing on an ergometer. But this didn’t end their effort, as their goal is to row at least seven hours longer than the previous record. “Tonight at eight o’clock the campaign will be concluded, after ten days and seven hours, by Jelle Teekens, one of the co-organizers and competitive rower at Thêta,” says Thêta member Fabian Lucas Luijckx.

To commemorate the breaking of the record, bottles of non-alcoholic champagne were uncorked and confetti was shot into the air at 1 pm this afternoon. TU/e President Robert-Jan Smits and Alderman Robert Strijk also gave a talk. Robert-Jan Smits mentioned that TU/e is donating one hundred euros for each day of rowing, a thousand euros in total.

Registration of world record

The world record will be registered by Concept2, the manufacturer of the ergometer. “Unfortunately, no official from Concept2 could be present today, so we are sending all the verification documents – such as the full live stream and all the data from the ergometer – to them,” Lucas Luijckx says. “After they have reviewed these, our record will be added.”

The reason the record won’t be included in the Guinness Book of World Records is commercial in nature. “This particular record doesn’t yet exist in the Guinness Book of World Records. You can choose to have it added, but that costs a lot of money, because it’s all quite commercial,” Lucas Luijckx explains. “And besides, all previous records – like the St Peter’s College Boat Club’s – were also registered by Concept2, so it makes more sense for them to document our record.”

44,555 euros

Thêta’s campaign has raised a total of over 44,555 euros and the donations are still coming in. The full amount will be donated to the Dutch Heart Foundation. “A competitive rower of our association, Claudia van Lieshout, suddenly passed away in her sleep due to cardiac arrest in 2021,” says Lucas Luijckx. “With her in mind, the Heart Foundation is really close to our own hearts and we decided to raise as much money as possible for this charity.” Donations can be made until 8 pm today.