Indoor Rowing World Record Falls

He’s the World Champion on the water and now also on the indoor rowing machine. Italy’s Elia Luini broke the indoor rowing record in the lightweight men’s category last week at the Italian Indoor Rowing Championships in Rome.

Luini knocked a whole second off the previous record set by Eskild Ebbesen of Denmark and setting the new benchmark at 6.02.6 over the 2000 metre distance. This puts Luini in an even stronger position to go after gold at this year’s Olympic Games. Luini competes on the water in the lightweight men’s double and with partner Leonardo Pettinari, they are on a winning streak.

At 24 years old, Luini has been rowing for half of his life. Growing up on the water’s edge in Varese, Italy, Luini won his first World Championship medal at the age of 19 as a member of Italy’s lightweight quad. After switching to the double in 2000 Luini’s winning continued. Pettinari and Luini finished with silver at the Sydney Olympics and have won the World Championship title every year since.

On 11 February Luini and Pettinari will meet the press to talk about the upcoming Olympics. This will include a demonstration in the rowing machine, distrubution of Luini’s calendar and will be broadcast on Eurosport.