Blowing away 1000m on the indoor rower in the virtual sprints

The 2021 World Rowing Virtual Indoor Sprints wrapped up on 14 March and the final tallies are in. An impressive 5270 people competed from 85 countries. Several records were toppled.

The first new record went to Isaiah Harrison of the United States. Harrison, 17, has been on fire on the ergometer over this past year. He broke all of the Concept2 records in his age category back when he was 14 and then became a World Rowing Indoor Champion just two weeks ago.

For the World Rowing Virtual Indoor Sprints Harrison beat his own 1000m record to submit a time of 2:41.1. Harrison received praise from the indoor community, including from the Jason Marshall of Canada, who finished second in the open men’s category. Marshall pointed out that Harrison’s time would have put him second on the men’s open leader board.

The men’s open title went to Maciej Maciejewski from Poland, who finished in 2:37.5, a new world record. Marshall was second and the 2018 world silver-medallist in the men’s double sculls, Barnabe Delarze from Switzerland took the third spot in a time of 2:43.8.

On the women’s side it was oh so close. Ana Caldas from the United States put up the fastest verified time of 3:11.1. Caldas was followed by the recent World Rowing Indoor Champion Kirsten Kline, also of the United States, who finished in 3:15.1. And it was Switzerland’s Pascale Walker who took the third fastest verified time in 3:15.6.

The Swiss were busy in the lightweight category as well with up-and-coming rower Sofia Meakin finishing first in 3:20.2. And lightweight rower Ahmet Rapi from Sweden claimed victory in the men’s lightweight category with a time of 2:57.8.

In addition to fast finishes in the open categories, the event achieved its goal of stimulating participation in indoor rowing around the world. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the event had 85 participating nations. The United States had the largest entry with 1611 entries, followed by France and the United Kingdom. But the group of enthusiasts from French Polynesia was at it again. French Polynesia regularly participates in the World Rowing Virtual Indoor Sprints. This year they submitted an impressive 294 entries. To put this in perspective, in relation to population, French Polynesia had more than 200 times the level of participation of the United States.

This year’s virtual indoor sprints also included the beta use of Concept2’s new ErgRace app. The app allows participants to set up virtual competitions through the use of a competition code. Participants were able to compete with one another live and subsequently submit the results to the Concept2 Logbook. More than 100 participants tested the app in small groups. Concept2 says they are working to make the app as user-friendly as possible in an attempt to bring virtual competitors closer together.

7 May 2021 – Update on the results of the 2021 World Rowing Virtual Indoor Sprints

The results of the World Rowing Virtual Indoor Sprints, an event held in partnership with Concept2, have been updated to reflect the removal of the winning Men’s Result from Maciej Maciewjewski. The original result submitted was a 2:37.5 for 1000 metres, a World Record on the Concept2 ergometer. As sufficient evidence of this score was not received upon request, this score has been invalidated both as a World Record, and as a World Rowing Virtual Sprint winning time. For updated results, please visit the Concept2 Logbook.

For full results from the virtual indoor sprints, click here: https://log.concept2.com/challenges/indoor-sprints/2021/statistics

For more information about the virtual indoor sprints, click here:  https://worldrowing.com/event/2021-world-rowing-virtual-indoor-sprints/