Britain’s Prince Harry has congratulated a crew of servicemen who rowed across the Atlantic Ocean.
The 29-year-old Royal presented the crew of injured and able-bodied servicemen, who completed the gruelling task of rowing an estimated 3,000 miles in 48 days, with medals at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, south-east England, yesterday (10.03.14).
The Prince supported the men in the run-up to their journey and even telephoned them to wish them luck while he was taking part in his own challenge of trekking to the South Pole with another group of injured servicemen and women.
Harry caught up with the four men – whose adventure was sponsored by the Row2Recovery charity, which raises funds for wounded troops and their families – and exchanged stories from their trips.
Former Olympic rowing star Sir Steve Redgrave also attended the medal presentation and praised the crew – which included Trooper Cayle Royce, Corporal Scott Blaney and Captain’s Mark Jenkins and James Kayll – for their courage and effort, and insisted he could never have completed such a difficult challenge.
He said: "I’m pretty proud of my five gold medals and they’ve got their Atlantic medals which I know I’m never going to get but I’m happy with that.
"The longest I ever spent in a boat was three hours and mentally I could just cope with that, to spend days and nights over and over again in a boat I could not cope with that.
"Their biggest strength is their mental strength."
Prince Harry presents servicemen with medals
