New Just Row x British Rowing event pushes indoor rower’s endurance limits
The Just Row X British Rowing event welcomed over 150 competitors to the Manchester Central Convention Complex on 18-19 May after a five-year hiatus.
Hosted alongside the Rainhill Trials, this unique indoor rowing competition tested indoor rowers’ mental and physical endurance through a series of seven races across four interval and endurance workouts. Over 3,500 spectators watched competitors race over the course of an hour, with scores based on total distance covered in each workout.
The workouts:
Workout A
4-minute row with 2-minute rest
3-minute row with 2-minute rest
2-minute row with 2-minute rest
1-minute row
Workout B & C
12-minute row (with points awarded to the fastest in the first 3-minute row and fastest overall 12-minute row)
Workout D
1-minute row
It was a close battle between Laura Barrigan and Helen Brownlee-Rowe in the female middleweight category. However, Barrigan secured the win after covering an impressive 3002 metres in Workout C (compared with Brownlee-Rowe’s 2989 metres) and 300 metres in Workout D, just 12 metres ahead of her competition.
Jim Berriman stole the spotlight in the open masters openweight division, after powering through the final one-minute workout, clocking an impressive 363 metres.
In the highly-competitive open openweight category, Greg Dunnings and Richard Craven finished joint first place on points. After all four workouts, it was Dunnings who clinched the title, edging out Craven with an additional 100 total metres covered.
The event was well-supported by the indoor rowing community, including a strong showing from teams from Sub 7 IRC, Blade Rowers, the Army Rowing Club, and Fitness Matters.
Chris Farrell, British Rowing’s Indoor Rowing Project Manager, expressed his enthusiasm about the event’s return: “It was fantastic to support the Rainhill Trials and bring back the Just Row x British Rowing event after a five-year absence from the race calendar. The new format, hosted at the Manchester Central complex, has engaged both the current indoor rowing community and many new beginners to the sport. I look forward to an even bigger and better event in 2025!”
The Just Row X British Rowing leaderboard can be found here.
