Stephansen breaks own indoor record

Stephansen, 20, inched closer to the magical six-minute mark finishing in 6:01.8 for the 2000m distance. Second in the lightweight men’s event was Elia Luini of Italy (6:11.5). Luini held the fastest time for this category until it was broken by Stephansen last year at the CRASH B’s Indoor rowing Championships in Boston. Gabriele Fabrizio of Italy finished third (6:14.5).

Indoor rowing competitions now attract many competitors who are solely indoor rowers that never set foot in a boat. Stephansen, however, is an accomplished on-the-water rower. He has competed for Denmark at the junior, under-23 and senior level. Stephansen’s last international race was at the 2008 European Championships where he competed in the open men’s quad.

Stephansen’s record was the only one broken at the Euro Open despite a strong showing and over 1,000 entries. This made it the biggest indoor rowing event ever to be staged in Italy. Nineteen countries were represented.  

Regular indoor rowing competitor Pavel Shurmei of Belarus won the open men’s event finishing in 5:42.7, just four seconds outside of the new world record set by New Zealand’s Rob Waddell in 2008. Shurmei was followed closely by Germany’s Karsten Brodowski (5:43.2) with Dario Dentale of Italy finishing third (5:53.5). All three of these rowers competed at the Beijing Olympics, Shurmei in the quad, Brodowski in the double and Dentale an A-finalist in the pair.

Italy’s Laura Schiavone, 22, won the open women’s section in 6:55.0 ahead of Maryia Smaliamkova, 18, of Belarus (6:58.8) with Italy’s Elisabetta Sancassani (7:02.2) in third. Schiavone and Sancassani raced together in the women’s double at the Beijing Olympics.

Denmark regularly excels at indoor rowing events and Juliane Rasmussen helped her country retain that position by winning the lightweight women’s event. Rasmussen, 29, finished in a time of 7:15.7.

Organiser Caroline Lucas of Concept2 Italy said the lightweight men’s event featuring Stephansen received much interest from the 5,000-strong crowd. But it was the relay races that brought the spectators to their feet.

“There was a breathtaking head-to-head between three Italian teams in the men’s open, Circolo Canottieri Aniene, Prosport WBN and the Fiamme Gialle who eventually took the victory in 5:20.0,” describes Lucas. The team event is a 2,000m relay in teams of four with each athlete rowing around 500m.

Competitors’ ages ranged from 79-year-old Mavis Surridge of Great Britain who covered the 2,000 metres in 9:36.4 to 10-year-old Enrico Mauro who raced in the one minute category.

Lucas says that next year’s venue for the Euro Open is yet to be decided, but she says, after this year’s success Rome is eager to hold it again in the future.

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