The elite group of indoor rowers who’ve gone sub 5:40 for 2000m

With the arrival of the 2021 World Rowing Indoor Championships (WRICH), I was prompted to take a look at the history of an iconic benchmark – the sub 5:40 time for 2000m on the Concept2 indoor rowing machine.

To put that performance in context for the rest of us, 5:40 requires a 1:25 per 500m split or 570 watts. That is 19 per cent more power than covering the distance in six minutes, 89 per cent more power than seven minutes and 181 per cent more power than eight minutes.

For many years the CRASH-B Indoor Sprints, held in Boston, United States each year, was the place where the world’s best rowers came to test themselves against each other on the indoor rower. The standard indoor distance was 2500m until 1996 when it moved to 2000m to be in line with the international standard distance on the water.

The record holder over 2500m was (and is) the giant Polish/ German rower Matthias Siejkowski with a time of 7:10.7. The 1997 CRASH-B race saw a dramatic 2000m race between Siejkowski and the New Zealand sculler Rob Waddell. Siejkowski was trailing Waddell the whole way but managed to outsprint him in the final few metres to record the first ever sub 5:40 time with a 5:39.7 to Waddell’s 5:40.1. The format in those days was a heat followed by a final and both men had already rowed around a 5:57 earlier that day to make sure they were in the final.

Waddell took the record the following year with 5:39.5 at the 1998 CRASH-B event and he subsequently improved that in 1999 back home in New Zealand to 5:38.3. Waddell put his power to great use on the water as he went on to win the men’s single sculls at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

In 2001 Siejkowski proved he was not done yet. At the age of 35 he took the record back with a 5:37.0 in a race in Poland.

In 2004 Pavel Shurmei from Belarus won the CRASH-B’s with 5:39.6 becoming the third man under. He went on to finish 6^th in the men’s quadruple sculls at the Athens Olympics that year. Shurmei is still going strong on the indoor rower and is the age group world record holder for 40+ athletes with a 5:47.8 set in 2017.

In 2008 Waddell came back to rowing in time to prepare for the Beijing Olympics. He had kept fit by being an Americas Cup sailing grinder and that year set a new world record of 5:36.6. This is still the 30-39 age group record and the third fastest time ever rowed.

Conlin McCabe, Canadian silver medallist in the eight in the 2012 London Olympics, became the fourth man under with a 5:39.4 in 2015. McCabe also competed in Rio and is in training for his third Olympics. McCabe recently set a new world record for the half marathon on the indoor rower covering the distance at an average split of 1:35.8.

Josh Dunkley-Smith, Australian double silver medallist in the four from the London and Rio Olympics, became the fifth man under with a 5:39.6 in June 2015. He subsequently improved that time and in 2018 Dunkley-Smith took Waddell’s long standing world record with a stunning 5:35.8. It remains the fastest time rowed to date.

Oliver Zeidler came from a distinguished German rowing family but pursued swimming as his initial sporting career with cross training on the Concept2 about once a week. His extraordinary talent on the indoor rower was clear and he converted to rowing in 2017. Zeidler reputedly pulled a 5:52 in training on his first 2000m test! This is surely the fastest debut performance ever recorded and makes many experienced rowers shake their heads in disbelief. He went on to become the sixth man under with a 5:38.7 aged just 21 on 7 April 2018. Zeidler remains the youngest man ever to row a sub 5:40. He is the current World Champion in the men’s single. Zeidler recently improved his best time to 5:37.5 at the German Indoor Rowing Championships.

Simon van Dorp of The Netherlands was the seventh man under rowing a 5:39.4, also aged just 21 at the University of Washington on March 6 2019. This was rowed as the first piece of a 4 x 2000m workout! Van Dorp improved that a few days later on 13 March 2019 with a 5:36.4 – the second fastest of all time. Van Dorp has been doing his recent ergo training on the RP3 rowing machine with the rest of the 2019 world silver medal Dutch eight. However, his world leading times on the RP3 suggest he may break the world record when he returns to the Concept2.

The 8th man to go sub 5:40 was Australian Simon Keenan who, whilst training for the Tokyo Olympics, took advantage of the once in four-year opportunity of 29 February 2020 to post a 5:39.7. Keenan won a silver in the men’s eight at the 2018 World Rowing Championships.

The 9th man under was Saulius Ritter from Lithuania who on 23 May 2020 posted a 5:39.1. Ritter won a silver medal in the men’s double sculls at the Rio Olympics and is in training for Tokyo.

The 10th man to achieve sub-5:40 was British athlete Tom George with a 5:39.6 for a new British record in lockdown training on 30 May 2020. George has medalled in the men’s eight at the 2018 and 2019 World Rowing Championships. In a group dominated by big men, George is probably the lightest athlete to achieve a sub 5:40.

George’s teammate, Mohamed Sbihi has been the fastest man in the British squad for a number of years. Sbihi is the holder of the 5000m world record at 14:54.5 and only Sbihi and Waddell are known to have rowed sub 15 minutes on this test. Sbihi responded to George’s inspiration by becoming the 11th man to row sub 5:40 and retaking his British record with a 5:39.4 on 17 July 2020.

So that’s the list so far – the 11 men under 5:40. Is there a 12^th man out there we don’t know about? Sometimes results are kept under wraps especially in Olympic years. Producing a similar list for women’s performances is not easy – partly because the round number benchmarks don’t sit quite so well and partly because there has unfortunately been much less publicity around women’s indoor rowing performances over the last 20 years.

I believe the first woman to row a documented sub 6:25 was triple Olympian Sophie Balmary of France. She did it during national team testing in 2012 with a 6:24.4, which was four seconds faster than her own official world record at the time. There are reports she achieved another sub 6:25 in training back in 2006.

The current women’s world record is held by Ukrainian double Olympian in the women’s quadruple sculls, Olena Buryak with a stunning 6:22.8 set at The World Games on July 26 2017. Olena has been the outstanding performer on the indoor rowing scene for some time.

Other than these two outstanding performances, I am not aware of any other examples of women who have rowed sub 6:25. The women’s sub 6:30 club is still very exclusive but probably not quite exclusive enough to reliably document.

Copy thanks to Tony Ward