RECAP: British Rowing Virtual Championships – Day 1

Look back on Day 1 of the inaugural British Rowing Virtual Championships as the GB Rowing Team’s Lauren Rowles beats her own world record.

The first day of the inaugural British Rowing Virtual Championships is in the books and it’s been full of fantastic moments! We’ve seen huge numbers of competitors from around the world, neck-and-neck racing and even a number of world and British records.

Amongst the records was British Rowing’s own Lauren Rowles, beating her own existing PR2 Women’s 2000m world record in a phenomenal time of 08:09.7. Val Coleman also set a new world record for the 90-94 women’s 2000m, covering the distance in an impressive 13:08.3.

Justine Reston also threw down a huge marker in the lightweight 50-54 women’s 2000m, improving on her own world record to cross the line in 07:17.1, whilst Gabriel Obholzer gave arguably the performance of the day to set a new British Junior record for 2000m of 05.57.2 – an astonishing time for an athlete of any age, made all the more impressive being aged only 16.

The international entry to the event was also out in full force today, with a number of gold medals being claimed by competitors from all over the world. The final of the AR3-Open men’s 2000m was the perfect example of this, with Romania’s Dumitru Paraschiva taking top spot ahead of Volodymyr Musyak of Ukraine and Luca Locci of Italy.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, we’re doing it all again! Racing begins at 09.30 (BST) and will be livestreamed here on the British Rowing website. Tomorrow will feature 60 races, all of which are finals and will see gold medals up for grabs. The final day of racing also brings the always-entertaining relays, so be sure to watch along for another day of real-time, side-by-side indoor rowing action.

Check out all of the results from today, tomorrow’s draw and all event information here.