A Row to the Moon challenge has been launched ©British Rowing

British Rowing, Rowing Canada Aviron, Rowing Australia and Rowing New Zealand have announced the "Row to the Moon" challenge.

The initiative builds on the success of the One Minute Challenge, which saw the four national bodies collaborate on a joint competition for indoor rowers.

The four-day event challenged anyone with a rowing machine to see how far they could row in a minute, allowing members of the public to compete alongside the nations' top athletes.

More than 2,300 rowers participated across the four nations, with more than half of that number made up of indoor rowers from Britain.

The One Minute Challenge saw 19 Concept2 world records and 21 Concept2 British records unofficially broken.

The records are currently being verified by Concept2.

The latest challenge invites indoor rowers to log training miles on an online platform, with the shared goal of accumulating a distance of 384.4 million metres – the distance from Earth to the moon.

It is the latest initiative aimed at helping people to remain active during the coronavirus pandemic. 

"It was awesome to see so many people at home getting involved in the One Minute Challenge," said Paralympic champion Lauren Rowles, who set a British record during the challenge.

"There's been a real community spirit through the rowing world during lockdown and it's been great to see us all come together and take on these challenges from our homes.

"This new challenge gives us another exciting target to work towards as a team and keeps that competitive spirit alive."

The Row to the Moon challenge begins today and will run for 10 days, concluding on May 31 at 6am British Standard Time.

A distance of 384.4 million metres is needed to reach The Moon ©Getty Images
A distance of 384.4 million metres is needed to reach The Moon ©Getty Images

British Rowing say the challenge will give members of the public the opportunity to participate alongside rowers from each nation's Olympic and Paralympic teams.

Throughout the duration of the global challenge, participants will be asked to upload all of the distance they cover on the rowing machine on a live, real-time web platform.

Participants will be able to add sessions as regularly as they like and can nominate friends on social media to join them in the challenge.

The Row to the Moon challenge also builds on the inclusive nature of the One Minute Challenge by offering 17 adaptive rowing categories to which users can upload their progress and contribute towards the combined total.

Registrations can be made here.