Unofficial indoor rowing record for Balmary

By Melissa Bray

A year ago France’s Sophie Balmary became the fastest woman in the world on the indoor rowing machine. Her time of 6:28.4 for 2000 metres set the new standard. Last month, as part of the French national team testing, Balmary went an astounding three seconds faster.

Her time of 6:25.5, however, will not be classified as a new World Record. New rules recently set by Concept 2, the indoor rowing machine makers, require athletes to be at a Concept2 sanctioned indoor rowing event with witnesses present for a 2000 metre record to be official.

Concept2 representative Thierry Louvet said the rules were tightened after Balmary set the new World Record by two-tenths of a second a year ago during the national team testing with just her and her coach, Michel Colard, present.

“We used to allow these results as records as national team athletes don’t always compete at indoor rowing competitions,” says Louvet. “But we realised a World Record needed to be made under similar situations each time.”

During an indoor rowing competition the start of the race is determined by a computer countdown system which can be a fraction of a second slower than an individual starting by themselves on the indoor rowing machine. Louvet says the difference in time could possibly be within two-tenths of a second.

“In other sports you can’t set a new record during a training session,” says Louvet.

These new rules apply only for the 2000 metre distance which is considered throughout the world as the standard distance. The rules do not apply for the many other distances that individuals and teams compete in on the indoor rowing machine.

Balmary achieved the 6:25.5 result by starting out at a stroke rate of 40 and settling to 34 strokes per minute for the body of the piece. Staying relatively steady throughout the piece, Balmary clocked her fastest pace in the final 500 metre segment recording a split of 1:35.7 for her ending sprint.

“It is a world best performance,” says Louvet, “but not a World Record.”

Balmary has been on the French national team for eight years and for the last two World Championships she has competed in the single finishing just outside of the medals in fourth both times. Prior to that Balmary competed at the Athens Olympics in the pair and at the Sydney Olympics in the single.

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