Phil Clapp: “This year is going to be the fastest year ever for the 500m”
The World Record holder spoke to Fergus Mainland ahead of the 2025 British Rowing Indoor Championships, sharing his thoughts and top tips for sprinting
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As the clocks get ready to go back this weekend, rowers up and down the country and across the world are getting ready for the great migration. The British Rowing Indoor Championships is six weeks away, and as the nights draw in, many rowing machines are being dusted off as winter looms ominously.
The 2025 edition of BRIC already has some of the top athletes salivating at the thought of lining up on the race floor and unleashing their V12 engines against one another, and one of the greatest expressions of raw power will come over 500m. This year’s competition will see Phil Clapp return to Birmingham to face off against some of the legends of indoor rowing sprinting. The man who holds world records over one minute, 500m, and 1000m is back racing these events at BRIC. Last time he raced this distance in Birmingham, he posted a 1.12 to take gold by nearly two seconds. This time out, he’s expecting the field to have stepped up another level, and more.
“I think this year is going to be the fastest year ever for the 500m, or at least the talent pool is going to be really strong at the top,” said Clapp, who won the 100m, 250m, and the 1000m at BRIC Super Sprint Sunday last year.
“I’ve spoken to quite a few of the guys who are going to be coming from places all over the world. There are the usual guys like Chris Scott, but then there’s Loïc [Schalbetter], who just broke the 100m world record, and the guys who have been racing the last few years putting in some massive performances. Someone even said to me we might have as many as 10-15 people under 1:15, so it should be good racing.”
Day to day, Clapp is a sailor. He’s won three world championship titles over the past decade in the Maxi72 class and also races in the 52 Super Series. Now that the summer sailing season has come to an end, Clapp is able to get back into a more regular rhythm with his sprint training. This involves some more consistent weight training before working on more specific sprint work over shorter distances.
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Clapp may have only put his entry in last week, but he’s cooking up some exciting plans for BRIC. While nothing is confirmed for Super Sprint Sunday yet, there could be some fireworks to look forward to as Saturday reaches its crescendo.
“It was a big day out last year when I did the 1000m, the 100m, and the 250m. However, we might be doing a relay with a fast team, so stay tuned for that, but there might be something good there.”
It wouldn’t be the first time that an all-star crew has assembled to beat the GB Rowing team. Last year, Elizabeth Gilmore teamed up with Tereza Horejsova, Anna Kuoppala, and Rachel Fisher from Erg Power Series. The quartet beat the Great Britain team and stormed to the gold medal, finishing 14 seconds clear of the field.
“I think people will always be surprised at the quality of some of the indoor rowers worldwide compared to the squad athletes,” explained Clapp.
“Over the 2000m distance, you will find that the national level rowers are going to be some of the strongest, but there’s still some real physical specimens out there who are training as effectively, if not more effectively, for erg performances, and then people wonder why they then turn up and put some sort of massive performance in. Elizabeth Gilmore is the one that people are always amazed by because she’s a mum and she can do all this other stuff and break all the records, and smoke professional athletes. It’s pretty special.”
While Clapp is fine tuning his engine ahead of this year’s drag racing, he also has some advice for people who are fresh on the sprinting scene. As well as information on his own website, sportwave.uk, he has helped to develop the 100m Sprint Training Plan in partnership with British Rowing. It is designed to help get the very best out of your body. Find the full plan, along with the rest of the British Rowing Indoor plans, here.
“Don’t turn up to BRIC having not done some sprint training. Now, it sounds silly, but so many rowers have a habit of saying, ‘Oh, I’m just going to do endless aerobic work, I might do a little bit of strength work, and maybe I’ll try some VO2 max work,’ but very rarely do you actually see people practicing some proper sprinting at home. On the day, don’t get too nervous and think you have to practice your sprint start 10 times over in the warm-up area.
“Last year, when I was warming up for the 1000m, I saw reams of people coming in and doing way too much in terms of the warm-up. There’s plenty of information available online about how to do it all, but sprinting is making sure you don’t turn up tired!
“If you want to have a real go at the 500m, you need a plan. Whether it’s six weeks into BRIC and you carry on for a bit longer, to get the best out of your body, people will ask me, ‘How long do you need to prepare?’ I usually say that you need 10 weeks of consistent training to do something special that reflects what you can do as an athlete.”
The British Rowing Indoor Championships will take place 6-7 December 2025 at the NEC in Birmingham.
