World’s Toughest Row: Team V3nture is 1st military trio to reach Antigua in 40 days

Antigua and Barbuda: Team V3nture has become the first in the serving military trio class to complete the 2024 edition of the World’s Toughest Row on Monday. Finishing in Antigua, the team rowed for 3000 miles (4800 km) from La Gomera in a duration of 40 days, 17 hours and 40 minutes.  

While the team finished at 7th position out of 38 teams, but their arrival was significant as they were the first among the four teams who are from military class. The teams left La Gomera on December 11, 2024, and have been since rowing to reach the finish line in the Caribbean. 

Team V3nture consisted of Captain Rob Cross from 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, Captain Charlie Newman of 7 Para Royal Horse Artillery and Captain Rob Treasure from 1st Battalion the Rifles in Cyprus who represented the United Kingdom. According to the information, these three serving soldiers first met in 2019 at Sandhurst Academy and have been firm friends ever since.  

Reportedly, the team V3nture chose to raise valuable funds around £140,000 through this race, of which 70% will be donated to charity Macmillan Cancer Support after Rob T’s father Stephen lost his life to cancer. The team has also named their vessel as Stephen in honour of his memory. They raised rest of the funds for other organisations including The Royal Artillery Charitable Fund, Care for Casualties and The Welsh Guards. 

Following the achievement, the team took to Facebook to express their excitement and happiness. They said, “We have barely all stopped crying from watching the INCREDIBLE moments earlier on when the team made land, and then the World's Toughest Row team casually drop these amazing images.”  

Notably, during the 40-day long row, the team suffered from power issues during the initial stages, but they did not give up and pushed forwards to always find solutions and keep going. The trio entertained their supporters through great videos online through Facebook back from the ocean including their landmark moment of their time on the Atlantic. 

As they arrived at Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua, they were greeted by tourism officials of Antigua and Barbuda and the team’s friends and family members, all of whom were lauding and cheering for the team.  

As 1 of the 4 military teams in this year's World’s Toughest Row, they are thrilled to become the first ones to reach the finish line in Antigua. Captain Treasure after reaching the finish line said that it was an amazing journey, and he thought it was absolutely incredible.  

The trio was provided with appreciation certificates at the Nelson’s Dockyard by the officials from the World’s Toughest Row, who appreciated the three of them for achieving this huge milestone.  

Reportedly, the first team to reach the finish line in Antigua was Team Row4Cancer who completed this journey in 37 days, 13 hours and 20 minutes. With V3nture becoming the 7th team to arrive, the officials await the arrival of rest of the teams who are still in the ocean, attempting to complete this challenge as soon as possible.