eam Antigua Island Girls celebrate their completion of the Pacific Challenge on their arrival to Hawaii (Photo credit: World’s Toughest Row) 

Press Statement

The Team Antigua Island Girls trio of Christal Clashing, Kevinian Francis and Samara Emmanuel will be greeted with an official welcome on their return to Antigua and Barbuda today having successfully braved the elements and gruelling conditions in a quest to row the vast Pacific Ocean and complete the World’s Toughest Row.

Their awe-inspiring endeavour, that saw the girls spend forty-one days at sea for the inaugural 2023 Pacific Challenge has not only demonstrated the power of women’s strength and resilience but also raised funds for building a home for vulnerable girls in need. 

Rowing an astonishing distance of approximately 2,800 nautical miles across the Pacific, in ‘the world’s toughest row’, their journey began in Monterey Bay, California, and culminated in Kauai, Hawaii on July 23, 2023.

The nation of Antigua and Barbuda is excited to welcome the Team home and will do so with a motorcade that will see family, friends, government officials, sponsors, and well-wishers take to the streets in a show of support for the Team’s accomplishment.

A motorcade organized by the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority will make its way into St. John’s starting at 4:30 p.m. with a route that will take Team Antigua Island Girls down Old Parham Road – Independence Avenue – Vivian Richards Street – Market Street – Long Street and onto Factory Road – ending at the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority’s Headquarters at the John E. St. Luce building.

Remarkable athletes, Team Antigua Island Girls are known for being the first black, female team to row the Atlantic Ocean, an accomplishment Kevinia Francis, Elvira Bell, Christal Clashing and Samara Emmanuel, achieved in 2019 after rowing in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge which ended in Nelson’s Dockyard, Antigua. 

The general public is invited to come out in their numbers and with their Antigua and Barbuda flags to show support for Team Antigua Island Girls on their return to the country. 

The Team Antigua Island Girls are an all-female rowing team from Antigua and Barbuda comprised of Elvira Bell, Christal Clashing, Samara Emmanuel, Kevinia Francis, and Junella King. Collectively, they are four athletes and a skipper.  

On July 23 2023 team members: Christal Clashing, Kevinia Francis, and Samara Emmanuel completed the Pacific Challenge Row Race, rowing from Monterey Bay, California, to Kauai, Hawaii, covering approximately 2,800 nautical miles in forty-one days. Their mission is to raise funds to build a home for young girls who have nowhere to go and are in conflict with the law.