12 Race against the machine – The world of indoor rowing world records
© Peter Spurrier/Intersport Images
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In 1981 the Concept2 rowing machine came
onto the market. It rapidly became a
standard off-the-water rowing tool
throughout the world for serious rowers and
coaches quickly took to the ‘ergometer’ as
an important tool to compare the strength,
speed and technique not just between their
own athletes, but with athletes from around
the world. The 2,000m erg test became
rowing’s one mile equivalent.
Until 1995 the standard distance on the rowing
machine was 2,500m. This changed in 1996 to
2,000m and world records over this distance have
been recorded and monitored by Concept2 ever
since. Fourteen years later the records continue
to be broken. Most recently, in January, the
lightweight women’s category was broken by
new American immigrant Ursula Grobler.
Concept2 representative Alex Dunne, who has
been following indoor rowing races for over a
decade says there is no magic formula to achieving
a world record, saying they tend to get set by
‘freaky people’. So records in the four top categories
– heavyweight men, heavyweight women,
lightweight men and lightweight women – are
not broken very often. “The pool of those doing
well is getting bigger, but the number at the top
is still small.”
Dunne says for heavyweight men anything under
5:50 is impressive. There are only three people who
have gone under 5:40 – Rob Waddell (NZL) who
is the current record holder, Pavel Shurmei (BLR)
and Matthias Siejkowski (GER). Single scullers are
often the top ergers. “The top male single scullers
would be around 5:45,” says Dunne.
“Both Pavel and Matthias are over 100kg and
Matthias is 208cm tall. Rob is 200cm,” says
Dunne. Dunne does not see anyone at present
who can come close to touching Waddell’s
record. A couple of Germans may be getting
close, but not yet close enough. Felix Bach,
the 18-year-old junior singles champion is
199cm and 102kg. In January Bach scored 5.57.
Karsten Brodowski, 24, (205cm and 103kg) >
