Stephansen smashes indoor rowing record again

Junior phenomenon Henrik Stephansen set the Danish Indoor Rowing Championships on fire when he established a new world record on the ergometer. Breaking his own record, set just three months ago, Stephansen went a staggering three seconds faster over the 2,000 metre distance.

Clocking 6:12.1 in the junior lightweight class, Stephansen firmly positioned himself in the record books and at 17 years old he still has another year in this age group.

Stephansen became the junior world record holder for the first time last November at the British Indoor Rowing Championships where he broke the former record by nearly a second ? taking the record off fellow Dane, Rasmus Quist. He handled the effort with such a degree of control that talk had already started on Stephansen's ability to go faster. The three second improvement proved this.

Stephansen is an accomplished sculler and is the current Danish and Nordic junior champion. He also competed at the World Rowing Junior Championships in 2005.

?They see him as the new Eskild Ebbesen,? says Lis Nielsen of the Danish Rowing Federation. Ebbesen was part of the Danish men's lightweight four that dominated the event winning Olympic medals at 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. Ebbesen retired from rowing after winning gold at Athens.

Next stop for Stephansen will be the Indoor Rowing Championships, CRASH-B's in Boston, United States to defend his title.

Also racing at the Danish Championships, lightweights Mads Rasmussen and Juliane Elander won their respective event. Both have recently returned from indoor rowing competition in Amsterdam where Rasmussen set a new lightweight men's world record for 6 kilometres; 19:40.4. Elander did the same for lightweight women over 6km clocking 22:18.8.

Meanwhile during Great Britain's national team testing the lightweight women's record came under threat. Lightweight sculler Jo Hammond got within three tenths of a second of the record held by American Lisa Schlenker. Hammond's time of 6:57.0 still gave her a world record in the lightweight women's 19 ? 29 age group.

For a full list of Danish results click here.

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