Rowing Video Of The Week: 2k Testing with Leander Club, Plus Recent European Results, on and off the Water

Erg testing with Leander Club (Screen capture)

This week's video comes to us from the riverbank in Henley-on-Thames. The video, shot by Nick Middleton (check him out on Instagram here), gives a dramatic look into the intensity inherent to the approach of Leander's athletes, as well as a sense of being in the room—and we've all been there, packed closely together in the boathouse, on test day.



Leander Club weren't the only ones testing, however—in fact, it has been an intense period of testing, both on the water and on land, for many programs in the United Kingdom of late. By land, the British men's and women's national teams were in evidence at the 2015 British Rowing Indoor Championships (BRIC), and there were more than a few fireworks—the highlight performance was that of Moe Sbihi, who broke Matthew Pinsent's British record for 2,000m of 5:42.3, posting a very quick 5:41.8 to lead the way for his teammates.


Leading the way on the women's side was Emily Carmichael of Leander Club, with a 6:46.7. (You can view full race results from BRIC 2015 here.)



A fun time was had by all—especially by Alex Gregory, it appears. (Sorry Alex! Couldn't resist!)


Also in indoor rowing news, the Netherlands indoor rowing championships (AEGON NK Indoorroeien) took place over the weekend, and saw a new Dutch record for lightweight women, thanks to Maaike Head. (Full results here.)




There were also a number of very strong open weight senior women's scores at NKIR, with no less than 11 women under 6:50 and 20 women under 7:00 (!)—among them Olympians Chantal Achterberg and Inge Janssen, going 6:42.5, and 6:45.3 respectively (good enough for second and third overall, behind Jose van Veen's 6:34.4).

Meanwhile, on the Tideway, this past week and weekend marked the annual Trial VIIIs events for both Oxford and Cambridge's men's and women's programs. As usual, there was some banter surrounding the chosen names for the crews—this year, our top pick for Trial VIIIs crew names goes to Oxford University Women's Boat Club, who raced 'Scylla' versus 'Charybdis.' (You can read full write-ups of all four races—CUBC, CUWBC, OUBC, OUWBC—on the official website of the Boat Races.)


As we've noted already this year, it has been an amazing 12 months for indoor rowing scores, around the world! We're looking forward to more as the 2016 Olympic Games draw ever closer. Check out our Indoor tab for more.

-RR

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