Paralympic Champion Benjamin Pritchard breaks 2000m World Record

Benjamin Pritchard has broken his own PR1 World Record on the Concept2 Rower at the National Training Centre in Caversham

Benjamin Pritchard has broken his own World Record on the Concept2 rower.

“The real victory is becoming the person willing to pursue an impossible goal long before anyone else believes in it.”

The reigning European, World and Paralympic Champion set a new PR1 World Record of 6:56.7 during testing at the National Training Centre in Caversham. His time beats his old record of 7:01.1 by 4.4 seconds.

Speaking after setting a new World Record, the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year said, “World records are visible to everyone. But, the real victory is becoming the person willing to pursue an impossible goal long before anyone else believes in it.

“I’d like to extend a huge thank you to everyone for their support in this effort but also in the journey to LA2028. I’m incredibly grateful to have a wonderful family, great friends, understanding colleagues, and fantastic coaches who are always in my corner, helping me unlock as much speed as possible.”

Pritchard has continued to rewrite his own history books. His new World Record on the Concept sits alongside his his world-best time on the water. At last year’s European Rowing Championships, the Welshman from from Mumbles, near Swansea in south Wales, broke the world-best time twice in three days in Plovdiv, Bulgaria posting 8 minutes 47.88 seconds in the heats on 29 May before going even faster in the final two days later, clocking a staggering 8:40.38.

Attention now turns back to the international calendar. Pritchard has already raced this season at the Para Rowing Regatta in Vaires-sur-Marne. After making history at the Metropolitan Regatta alongside Jake Woods as the first PR1 athletes to race at the event, all eyes are back on the international stage as the season builds towards the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam at the end of August.