No one makes the rules! There’s no one that says, ‘You can’t row a Pacific Ocean and then qualify for the Paris Olympics,” Joachim Sutton told Row360 ahead of his Pacific Ocean crossing. “I will try to make my own rules.”
Photo Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallist Joachim Sutton makes his final preparation ahead of the 2023 Pacific Challenge.
Credit World’s Toughest Row
Denmark’s Olympic M2- bronze medallist, Joachim Sutton, starts his Pacific Ocean crossing today (June 12th 2023) with Ocean Warrior. The four-man crew are supporting the Danish Childhood Cancer Foundation, and hope to become the first Scandinavian boat to row across the Pacific Ocean.
2023 Pacific Challenge, final preparations in pictures.
Their skipper, Lasse Wulf Hansen, is a successful ocean rower who has crossed the Atlantic Ocean three times, most recently winning the 2021 Talisker Atlantic Challenge solo class.
Hansen, an ex-Danish Army soldier, assembled his crew from within his own gym, The WolfPack Gym. Jens Peter Leschly Neergaard, a successful businessman who backed the venture, and Sutton’s childhood friend, a police officer and ultra-runner, Andreas Dyrby, are the two remaining members of the crew.
Sutton hopes to land in Hanalei Bay in Kauai, Hawaii, in approximately 30 days time.
After the 2800 mile journey he flies home to Denmark (and on to a training camp) to resume his preparation for the 2023 World Rowing Championships with his longstanding pair’s partner Frederic Vystavel.
