Indoor rowing record to Danish lightweight

Upping the ante is Henrik Stephansen’s game when it comes to setting World Records. Recently Denmark’s Stephansen broke his own indoor rowing World Record in the junior men’s lightweight category by going an incredible six seconds faster over the 2000 metre distance.

Stephansen first captured the junior World Record at the end of 2005 as a 17-year-old when he clocked in at 6:15. Just three months later Stephansen knocked three seconds off this time, dropping the record to 6:12.1. His new record, now as an 18-year-old, is 6:06.5. This is just four seconds outside that of the elite lightweight record, currently held by Italian rower Elia Luini.

Indoor rowing competitions have become a habit for Stephansen who in 2005 won the junior lightweight division of the Euro Open Championship in Copenhagen and then went on to win the same event at the World Indoor Rowing Championships, the CRASH B’s, in Boston last year.

Also accomplished on the water, Stephansen raced to gold at the 2006 World Rowing Junior Championships, winning the men’s double along with partner Nils Stene.

Concept 2 representative for Denmark, Reiner Modest calls Stephansen the phantom lightweight and describes a test for maximum oxygen uptake that Stephansen carried out late last year. In the six-minute test Stephansen went just a pip under 2000m. His total was 1997m, which was even more remarkable as Stephansen completed the test with the indoor rowing machine on slides.

“He got sick just before the Euro Open in December,” says Modest, “where he had it in mind to break the record once again.”

But Stephansen will have another opportunity while he is still 18 to stamp a further mark on his World Record. Stephansen will be a starter at the Danish Indoor Rowing Championships on 27 January, 2007.

Stephansen, however, will not be the only star present.

Coming out of rowing retirement, two-time Olympic gold medallist and member of Denmark’s famed Guldfireren, Eskild Ebbesen is aiming to be part of a Danish four to compete at the next Olympics. Ebbesen holds the World Record for the 30 – 39 year old lightweight men’s category. His record time is just 0.1 seconds faster than Stephansen’s junior record.

Also competing at the Danish Championships is current World Champion in the lightweight men’s double, Mads Rasmussen. Rasmussen recently set a time of 6:05.8 in training.

The open lightweight event will be the one to watch at the championships.

“Ebbesen is already back under 6:10,” says Modest, “already in December.”

For the statistics, Stephansen’s splits per 500m:
1:31.1, 1:32.3, 1:32.4, 1:30.7