Rowing:A British and Irish team have broken the record for the fastest crew to row across the Atlantic.

Irishmen Ray Carroll, Peter Donaldson and Reinhardt von Hof were part of the 14-man crew of La Mondiale which left the Canary Islands on December 15th and reached Barbados last night, breaking the 15-year-old record of 35 days by well over a day, writes Liam Gorman.

The crew, led by Scotsman Leven Brown, had already set the record for the longest distance rowed on the ocean in a day - 117 miles - and had become the first ocean rowing boat to cover more than 100 miles in a day for over nine consecutive days.

All the crew did the row for charities, and von Hof went ahead knowing his father would die while he was completing the row.