Winning rowers plan new challenge

The rowers were greeted by family and friends on arrival in Mauritius

Four rowers who made history by becoming the first team of four to row from Australia to Mauritius are planning to try for another title.

Nick and Phil McCorry, 25 and 24, Matt Hellier, 20, from Bexhill, East Sussex, and Ian Allen, 25, from Sevenoaks, in Kent, won the Indian Ocean Rowing race.

They began the 3,132 nautical mile Woodvale Challenge in April, finishing in 68 days, 19 hours and 40 minutes.

The friends now want to race across the Atlantic Ocean at the end of the year.

The oarsmen, members of Bexhill Rowing Club, ended their epic journey in the 29ft-long Bexhill Trust Challenger at 2240 GMT on Thursday, and were greeted by about 40 family and friends who let off flares and fireworks in celebration.

'Made history'

They had rowed in pairs on two-hour shifts throughout the challenge, which saw them take the risk of going north earlier in the race, when their competitors were going south.

The Woodvale Challenge website said the four life-long friends had "made history by winning the first ever Indian Ocean Rowing Race".

But the end of their journey was beset with problems which could have cost them the race.

"The rudder was tied on with string and straps," said Nick McCorry.

"If that had snapped we wouldn't have been coming in when the sun was up, we would've been coming in wherever the ocean took us."

In the end they won the race with a huge margin, with their nearest competitors 300 miles behind and thousands of pounds raised for The Stroke Association.

The four friends are now planning to set sail again from the Canary Islands in December in their effort to conquer another ocean.

The rowers have been talking about how they felt on making land