It’s a strange sort of way to see in the New Year, but Danny Longman hopes it will pay off. He’s forgone the festive traditions of Auld Lang Syne and midnight revelry for a seat in a 50ft long rowing boat in an attempt to set a new world record for rowing the Atlantic.

Danny, who's originally from Formby, Merseyside, is a champion sprinter who's represented the University in several Varsity matches at 100 metres, 200 metres and 4x 100 metres relay. He also rows for Christ's and narrowly missed out on a place in the 2012 Olympics canoeing squad after getting to the final five of 4,000 contenders.

He'll need all the stamina and fitness his sports training has built up for his latest challenge. The crew will need to row a gruelling 3,050 miles in total.

But the Captain of Christ's Boat Club, Duncan Bull, who's known Danny for four years is confident he'll meet the challenge.

"He's pretty resilient - he'll take pretty much anything that's thrown at him and come out on top eventually".

Danny says he's very grateful for the support from Christ's Marguerites Sporting Society and all his family and friends ahead of the record attempt - but even the most intrepid adventurers still have mothers and girlfriends who worry:

" My mum's been asking lots of questions about safety and insurance and things…but I'm sure it'll all be fine!"

Danny's fellow rowers at Christ's hope to track his progress using GPS and provide updates on his adventures.

More information on Christ's College Boat Club, and on this story.