The mission was expected to take more than five months

Jennifer Murray, from Frome, Somerset, and Colin Bodill, from Nottingham, crashed in Antarctica on Saturday, having completed one third of their challenge.

The team says it will still submit a claim for the speed record for flying from New York to the South Pole in a helicopter.

After the crash, Mr Bodill, 54, wrapped 63-year-old Ms Murray, in a sleeping bag, erected a tent for shelter and lit a stove for warmth before collapsing from chest injuries.

They were picked up on Saturday and are receiving hospital treatment in Chile.

Jennifer has dislocated an elbow, not broken an arm as was first feared Team spokesman

A spokesman for the Polar First Challenge said: "Colin sustained injuries typical of those received in high-impact crashes.

"He is undergoing a thorough medical assessment but is lucid, conscious and stable.

"Jennifer has dislocated an elbow, not broken an arm as was first feared."

She also sustained broken ribs, while Mr Bodill fractured his lumbar 1 vertebrae, which will require an operation on Tuesday.

RAF Kinloss in Scotland raised the alarm at 0100 GMT after picking up the signal from the helicopter's distress beacon.

Rescuers from an RAF centre in the Falklands found the adventurers, who had crashed 120 miles north of Patriot Hills, a base on the northern section of the Ronne Ice Shelf in western Antarctica.

Poor weather prevented a rescue aircraft from landing, while Mrs Murray and Mr Bodill waited in temperatures as low as -40C.

The pair had reached the South Pole in Mrs Murray's helicopter, a Bell 407, earlier this week at the start of their 33,000-mile (53,000km) trip.

They had set off from New York on 22 October and reached Antarctica earlier this month.

The plan was to head up the west coast of the American continents to the North Pole before finishing in New York in April.