Nils Torolv Simonsen and Olaf Tufte, the world single sculls champion, set a new fastest time for the two-man 100,000m recently, crushing the previous best by almost 14 minutes and setting a new time of 5 hours, 39 minutes and 24.5 seconds. The record was set in a shopping centre in Tufte’s hometown of Horten, Norway. The display was transferred with Digital Rowing’s RowPro software onto a big screen behind the rowers. They rowed 10 x 5,000m each, and kept themselves going in the breaks, which Tufte said was the worst part of the row. They began with what they described as a “calm start”, rowing at an average pace of 1:43/4 per 500 metres, before finishing at an almighty wallop, with average splits of less than 1:40. Nils Torolv Simonsen (first 5,000m) 17:17.7 (1:43.8 seconds/500m) Olaf Tufte (first 5,000m): 17:15.7 (1:43.6 seconds/500m) -- Nils Torolv Simonsen (last 5,000m): 16:36.1 (1:39.6 seconds/500m) Olaf Tufte (last 5,000m): 16:29.0 (1:38.9 seconds/500m) The event was a fundraiser for Norwegian charity “Mot”, and the goal was to collect one Norwegian Kroner for every metre rowed. That goal is still to be met but, by the time they had finished, they had raised 40,000 Kroner.