Indoor rowing battle of the Danes

Veteran comeback rowing star Eskild Ebbesen, 34, holder of eight Olympic and World Champion gold medals, came up against 18 year old lightweight indoor rowing champion, Henrik Stephansen over the weekend in the key event at the Danish Indoor Rowing Championships.

Also in the mix, men’s lightweight double World Champion Mads Rasmussen and a slew of Danish lightweight men, all hoping to be part of their nations next lightweight men’s four.

Ebbesen took an early lead with Rasmussen in second and Stephansen in third. By the first 500 metre mark of the 2000 metre sprint Rasmussen had passed Ebbesen with Stephansen coming on strong. At the start of the last 500 metre Stephansen had taken first position and remained there.

Less than a second outside his World Record time as a junior, Stephansen finished in 6:07.1 with Rasmussen coming through outside his personal best at 6:09.0. Ebbesen, who holds the World Record for 30-39 year old lightweights, finished third with 6:10.2.

Stephansen said he felt good coming into the event but knew the competition would be tough.

“I had heard that Eskild and Mads probably would start fast to scare me. So I was focusing on my own race, and almost the whole way through the 2000 meters I felt good or as good as one can feel in an erg race,” described Stephansen. “As I passed 1500 meters I realised that I could hold my lead position.”

Adding to the success for Stephansen, the same day he was awarded Rower of the Year 2006 by the Danish Federation. This award, along with doubles partner Nils Henrik Stene, acknowledged their success in winning the men’s double at the 2006 World Rowing Junior Championships.

Lightweight Danish representative Juliane Elander Rasmussen won the women’s class. This is the third consecutive win for Rasmussen at the Danish Championships. Finishing in 7:04.0, Rasmussen improved on her own Danish record by 1/10 of a second.

This adds to Rasmussen’s recent rowing machine accomplishments. Recently at the Dutch “Ergohead” competition in Amsterdam, Rasmussen set a new record, breaking her own previously set time, in the 6,000 metre event by finishing in 22:14.03. At this same event Mads Rasmussen set a new World Record in the lightweight men’s category, finishing in 19:39.0 and Hungarian Akos Haller won the heavyweight event setting a new World Record of 18:44.9.