01 Feb 2012
Six indoor rowing records broken
Taking on the lightweight men’s record, Stephansen raised his fist in the air at the finish of the 2000m piece. He had beaten the record of Italy’s Elia Luini with a time of 6:02.2.
Organiser Kirk Bargerhuff describes the focused Stephansen, “I saw him sitting off alone several minutes before his race. Everyone was busy and no one really noticed him. ‘You look like you are serious, getting into the zone,’ I said. He looked at me and with a simple smile he replied, ‘I am.’” Stephansen came prepared to set the world record and he did it by himself, finishing 12 seconds sooner than second placed Felix Overmann of Germany.
Stephansen was just one of the six records broken this year. Also in the new record book is:
- Susan Hooten, 55, United States, 7:23.7 in the women’s 55-59 age category
- Walter Wagner, 81, Germany, 7:42.0 in the men’s 80-84 age category
- Christian Sommer, 65, Germany, 6:46.9 in the men’s 65-69 age category
- Raimund Schuster, 55, Germany, 6:20.9 in the men’s 55-59 age category
- Ralph Ekhart, Germany, 5:57.8 in the men’s 40-49 age category
Paul Randall, now 90 years old, from Indiana, USA, finished in 10:03. Randall sat on an average split of 2:30.75 per 500m.
Over 2000 competitors took part this year including those racing in the “bullpen” which is available for anyone not pre-registered. They can walk in off the street and see how well they can do against the best in the world.
Countries represented this year:
USA, Canada, Russia, Ireland, UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Mexico, Australia, Argentina, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and France.
SUMMARY RESULTS
Open Men
1st place: Paolo Loriato, ITA 5:52.4
2nd place: Roman Shore, USA 5:54.6
3rd place: Anton Grassl, SVK 5:56.6
Open Women
1st place: Tess Gerrand, AUS 6:43.2
2nd place: Pavlina Zozkova, CZE 6:44.5
3rd place: Meghan Musnicki, USA 6:48.7
Lightweight Open Men
1st place: Henrick Stephansen, DEN 6:02.2
2nd place: Felix Övermann, GER 6:14.2
3rd place: Steffen Bonde, DEN 6:15.4
Lightweight Open Women
1st place: Sonia Boubeta, ESP, 7:10.4
2nd place: Alexis Zink, USA, 7:11.8
3rd place: Julia Wolff, GER, 7:14.1