Members of the University of Calgary's Dinos women's rowing team have unofficially broken a world record, rowing one million metres consecutively on an indoor rowing machine.

The 11-woman team began their relay row at 8 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 17 and finished just after 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 20, rowing for just over 70 hours. Members of the team include co-captains Courtney Kruschel and Rebecca Fung, Andrea Ornawaka, Hannah Anderson, Anna Bender, Carli Klapstein, Asha Bansal, Arianna Mamer, Claire O'Brien, Catherine Ohler, and Taylor White.

The Dinos' final time of 70 hours, 36 minutes, and 49 seconds was over 15 hours faster than the current world record, which was set by a team of 20 women from New Zealand in 2016. While completing the million metre record, the Dinos also surpassed the world record for the number of metres rowed in 24 hours.

On the experience of setting a new World Record, Hannah Anderson said, "These ladies are all badass and I was honoured to get to break a world record alongside my babes." Echoing her teammate's sentiments, Anna Bender described the Dinos as "The best team I've ever been on! I can't imagine beating a world record with anyone else."

The aim of the Dinos Women's Million Metre Challenge was to break the World Record for the Concept2 Ergometer (rowing machine) in the category of women ages 20-29.

In addition to setting a new World Record, the team used the challenge as a way to fundraise, setting a goal of $5,000. Half of the proceeds from this event will go to support the organization Fast and Female — which promotes sport and activity for young women and girls — while the other half supports Dinos Rowing.

Video of the athletes competing the million-metre challenge, as well as data from the Concept2 indoor rower, will be submitted to officials to verify the new record.

Donations to the Dinos Women's Million Metre Challenge can be made at https://sportfunder.com/dinosrowamillionmeters.

See the Dinos women in the media:
https://www.660citynews.com/video/2020/02/19/rowing-for-a-record/
https://globalnews.ca/news/6573422/dinos-women-million-meter-challenge/