Indoor rowing world record broken

New record holder, Balmary

At 11am on Sunday 11 November Sophie Balmary of France became the fastest woman in the world on the indoor rowing machine when she finished in a time of 6:28.4 for the 2,000 metre distance.

Balmary set the new world record during the first of two French national team tests for the season at the national training centre in Toulouse, France with just her coach Michel Colard watching quietly at her side. She had set out to go under 6:30 with the aim of reaching 6:28 at the second test in February. ?I didn’t have the time on my screen during the test,? says Balmary, ?so I didn’t know if I’d done the record until after. Doing the record was not really the objective, but more to improve on my best time.?

The new record is two-tenths of a second faster than the previous record held by Georgina Evers-Swindell of New Zealand who set the standard in 2002.

Prior to this Balmary’s personal best was 6:31.4 which she achieved in 2004. Now Balmary plans to break the record again in February. ?I hope to do 6:27 or better.?

Balmary during the World Rowing Championships final

Workouts on the rowing machine have not been a focus of Balmary’s training except for a once a week low rating (stroke rate 18) for over an hour. ?I plan to continue to train once per week on the ergo,? says Balmary.

Balmary averaged a stroke rate of 32 for her piece with the splits every 500 metres: 1:36.6; 1:37.7; 1:37.3; 1:36.8.

An engineering student Balmary balances training with studies and this year she finished fourth at the World Rowing Championships in the single. Prior to that she has competed at two Olympic Games, once in the single and once in the pair. ?The more important thing for me is the world championships in Eton,? says Balmary who plans to go after a medal in the women’s single. 

Balmary is the third French person to hold an indoor rowing record. Christelle Fernandez was the lightweight woman record holder in 1998 with 07:02.3 and Jean Paul Tardieu in the lightweight men’s 40-49 years in 06:26.5 (1997).

Related links
Euro Open
British indoor rowing championships
CRASH-B’s indoor rowing championships

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