Records Galore at British Rowing Indoor Championships

Having organised four virtual events in the last 18 months, British Rowing has developed a well-oiled concept for virtual indoor rowing competitions and the 2021 British Rowing Indoor Championships was another successful event.

Previously hosted in the London 2012 Olympic cycling venue, British Rowing took the decision to run the event virtually again this year, but that certainly didn’t deter the hardcore indoor rowers, as the competition attracted 871 individual entries, ranging in age from 11 to 95. The competitors were drawn from 32 different countries.

Although the competitors all took part virtually from their own homes, the event was hosted from the home of the GB Rowing Team in Caversham, near Reading, where members of the National Team also took part in the event.

9 teams of rowers from across the men’s and women’s GB Squads took part in exhibition relays, each racing 500m.

The GB Paralympic squad also took part, and one of the highlights of the day was Paralympian Benjamin Pritchard provisionally breaking the World and British Record for the PR1 (arms and shoulders) men’s 2000m with a time of 7:25.4.

The event proved how indoor rowing, particularly in a virtual format, is open to so many different people, with eight rowers from Her Majesty’s Prison Stocken taking part in the competition.  The sport also attracts individuals who have excelled in other sports including Jade Lally, who represented Great Britain at the 2016 Olympic Games in discus. Jade provisionally set a World Record in the women’s 1-minute race clocking 355m.

93-year-old Val Coleman of Fishguard and Goodwick Jemima Rowing Club and 95-year-old Alan Bell from Salcombe Estuary Rowing Club proved that age is no barrier to indoor rowing, with both competitors setting Championship records for their respective categories. Val also broke her own World and British records with her time of 12:53.9 for the 2000m race, smashing her previous record by over 11 seconds.

The afternoon featured many race categories for juniors with the option to row for a set time based on their age or to form a team of four and race in a relay. The junior events attracted a wide range of entries from schools who ran their own mini events in their own venues.

The British Rowing Indoor Championships was run just a couple of days after it was announced that the World Rowing Indoor Championships would move to a fully virtual competition for 2022. Scheduled for 25-26 February, full details on the event can be found here.