Teaming up for indoor rowing

Six lanes of ‘eights’ sliding

The Euro Open indoor rowing competition in Copenhagen, Denmark highlighted team rowing on slides and watched age-group individual world records fall. In its third year, the Euro Open débuted with FISA team events. In these events, international rowers entered by their National Federation raced on ergometers attached to each other by slides forming crews of twos, fours and eights.

Commentator Alex Dunne, international sales director for Concept2, called it ?an historical day? as this was the first time that six lanes of eight ergometers on slides had been hooked up at an indoor rowing event.

France won the FISA lightweight four event which included three 2005 World Champions from the lightweight four РFabien Tilliet, Franck Solforosi and J̩r̩my Pouge, with Arnaud Pornin replacing Jean-Christophe Bette. Denmark finished second and third.

France wins the FISA 4x team sliding event

France’s top lightweight men also raced as individuals finishing in the top two positions of the 19-23 lightweight event, Pornin taking first in 6.13 and Solforosi finishing second. Solforosi has been racing internationally since 2002 and is already a two-time World Champion and Junior Champion while Pornin raced this year to fifth in the lightweight double.

The open men’s lightweight event ended in a close battle between Denmark’s Mads Rasmussen and Frédéric Dufour of France. Rasmussen and Dufour last met on the water in the lightweight double final at this year’s World Rowing Championships where Rasmussen won silver. In Copenhagen Dufour led for most of the race only to be rowed down in the final sprint by Rasmussen, his winning time, 6.10.

The women’s open lightweight event was dominated by Denmark with Juliane Elander Rasmussen winning in 7.07. In a similar vein Denmark won the 30 ? 39 lightweight women’s event when Maria Pertl finished with 7.10. Both Rasmussen and Pertl raced together in the lightweight quad at this year’s World Rowing Championships where they finished second.

Pertl and Rasmussen teamed up in the pair slide event beating World Champion in the single Marit van Eupen and partner Mette Beugelsdijk of the Netherlands.

British swimmer, turned rower, Phil Turner won the men’s open event pulling a personal best of 5.54. Turner hopes to try out for Great Britain’s rowing team in the future.

Winner of the junior men’s lightweight event, Henrik Stephansen of Denmark broke the world record two weeks ago at the British Indoor Rowing Championships. At Copenhagen his winning time of 6.15.4 was just 0.2 of a second slower than his world record time.

The former world record was annihilated in the 60-69 women’s open category when Mies Bernelot Moens of the Netherlands knocked a staggering 11 seconds off the former record to finish in 7.33.1. The lightweight divison of this age group also gained a new world record with Ingrid Peterson of Denmark setting the standard at 7.48.6 – a huge 17 second improvement from the previous record. Dennis Hastings of the United States set the final record with the 50-59 lightweight category now at 6.40.8.

For a full list of results go to: www.c2euroopen.dk/

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