© Peter Spurrier/Intersport Images
has gone 5.41, but has not matched that
pace recently.
Amongst the lightweight men (75kg (165lb) or
less), Dunne says there is a bunch of athletes
who have made it into the low six minutes arena.
These include Danish Olympic Champion Eskild
Ebbesen, Italy’s top lightweight Elia Luini and now
the current record holder Henrik Stephansen (DEN)
who broke Luini’s world record and became the
first lightweight to go under six minutes.
As a rower Stephansen uses erg training to help
with his water speed. Being from Denmark means
training in the winter months is predominantly
on the erg, but in the summer he is almost solely
on the water. Stephansen, who has broken his
own record twice, says that on the day of the
competition he focuses totally on the race from
the moment he wakes up until it is finished.
“First I focus on a good weigh-in,” says Stephansen,
“Then I relax before the race and I think through
how I’m going to row 2,000 metres. I have a specific
plan. I’ve done the calculations before, so I know
where to be at each 500 metre point. I set the
stroke rate to match the pace. I’m not aware at all
of what others are doing. I focus only on my own
race. I’m there to row, not to watch.”
Stephansen averages about 40 strokes per minute
and when he set the current record of 5:58.5
(February 2009), Stephansen was rating 49 strokes
per minute towards the end of the piece. Waddell
also used a high, average 40 stroke rate when he
set his world record.
At 21 years old Stephansen says he still has the
capability to go faster. “I think I’ve got time on my
side,” he says.
The new world record holder in the lightweight
women’s category, Ursula Grobler, broke a ten-year
old record set by Lisa Schlenker (USA). Grobler
went two seconds faster than Schlenker’s record
clocking 6:54.7. She set this weighing in at the
maximum weight for a lightweight of just over
61kg (135lb). >
