AN Irish rowing team who hope to tackle 4,800km in a transatlantic race later this year arrived in Aberystwyth on Friday as part of a training exercise.

A group of four rowers from the “Row Hard or Go Home” rowing team arrived in town after completing a training exercise which saw them travel from Ireland to Aberystwyth in a 36-hour journey.

One of the rowers, Tom Nolan, said: “We’ve circumnavigated a number of routes around Ireland and we often row to Aberystwyth as it’s quite good fun, I think this is the fourth time we’ve done it.”

Despite this journey seeming quite routine to the group, this is not an exercise to be taken lightly.

“The journey takes 36 hours. This is a trip that is good fun, we row and train and when we get to Aberystwyth we can socialise, go to a few pubs and get the ferry back.”

This exercise is not just for fun however, the team take on this trip ahead of their participation in the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge. The race sees its competitors row 4,800km from the Spanish island of La Gomera to Antigua later this year.