Ten athletes from the Windsor Boys’ School Boat Club set a new World and British record at the weekend for rowing 100,000 metres on an indoor rowing machine.

Hundreds of shoppers in the Windsor Royal Shopping centre gathered around the stage where the boys were performing as Ed Fousett pulled the last few strokes to beat the record. As he did, the place erupted in cheers and applause as it was announced that the existing record of 4:48.20 had been smashed by over two and half minutes, with the new record being set at 4:45.48.

Rowing in rotation each boy started by rowing 20 strokes before rolling off the ergo and being instantly replaced by the next athlete and the cycle repeated.

The mass of spectators could watch a television screen that showed the comparison times as each 5,000 metre mark was reached. From the very first split time the Windsor athletes had the record in their sights. Occasionally an athlete would relieve himself of his stomach contents, but the effort continued regardless. Just pick yourself up, catch your breath and get back in line to await the next round of torture.

Hour after hour the pounding continued, with each athlete performing to his utmost, bringing admiration and astonishment from the growing crowd of spectators. The television cameras came and went, and still the boys continued to push and pull.

As the athletes sweated their way to a new record the team that supported them raised nearly £2,500 with a bucket collection among the generous people in Windsor, with the funds being equally split between Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity and the Windsor Boys’ School Boat Club.

Coach Mark Wilkinson was ecstatic about the performance: “This was inspirational - totally awesome. These athletes have worked so hard for each other and been completely focused on one thing - bringing home a World and British record to Windsor”.

The athletes who broke the World and British record were: Michael Hanniford, Matthew Hart, Joshua Deeley, Sergey Kleshnev, Ed Fousett, Sean Corbett, Sam Tyrrell, Toby Johncox, Ashley Towne and Jack Jarratt, being supported by Ross Gilmour and Jon Sowter.