14 Jun 2012

Presenters rise to Pinsent rowing challenge

Channel 4 News presenters Jon Snow, Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Cathy Newman take on a 2km rowing challenge set by four-time Olympic champion Sir Matthew Pinsent. Who will win?

The challenge begins at 8am at London Rowing Club on the banks of the Thames.

Several boats are already gliding through the water but for Jon, Krishnan and Cathy the competition is inside, against the dreaded rowing machine.

The Channel 4 News presenters are racing each other over 2km, the distance Britain’s top stars will compete over at the London 2012 Olympics.

The challenge is designed to show the physical and mental pressure Olympic athletes put themselves under as well as encouraging more people to take up sport.

Read more: Jon Snow blogs on rowing with a great

Sir Matthew Pinsent on the way to gold at the Olympics (Reuters)

The morning begins with Sir Matthew passing on tips about technique and tactics: “The ideal is to go off at a nice good speed and then you want to settle down into a rhythm for the middle part of the race.

“So you have 500m which is fairly strong and then a middle thousand, and then if you can towards the end, you want to try and lift it again.”

Read more: Krishnan Guru-Murthy blogs on 'rowing challenge hell'

Team talk over, the “rowers” set off, their progress monitored by a computer.

Jon takes an early lead over Krishnan with Cathy falling into third place but as Sir Matthew say “2km is a long way!”

You can find out what happened next by watching the video above.

The Channel 4 News challenge was inspired by the Nation on Trial event run by the Team GB rowing team earlier this year, encouraging everyone to have a go on a rowing machine and take the 2k challenge.