The British Rowing Indoor Championships once again head to Birmingham as part of FitFest 2024. With over 1,700 participants, 66 of them racing the Open 2000m, Saturday is set to be an incredibly exciting day of racing.
14 members of the GB Rowing Team are on the entry list, and Matt Haywood and Callum Dixon are the standout names. The two scullers made up half of the men’s quad that finished fourth at the Paris Olympic Games.
They’re also joined by Will Stewart from the spare pair and a whole host of athletes who have been training at Leander or studying in the United States in recent years. This group, part of the ‘Project LA 2028’ group, features Cedol Dafydd, Miles Beeson, Tobias Schröder, and Dan Graham, many of whom will be targeting the Olympic Games in less than four years.
Gabriel Obholzer is also due to race. It is worth noting that he currently holds the British 17-18 record for 2000m on the Concept2 RowErg which he completed back in 2021.
While this year’s event is missing the top two athletes from 2023, bronze medallist Luke Marston is back representing the Royal Air Force. Marston, who recorded a time of 6:19.7 will be hoping to build on his score from 12 months ago and see how close he can get to members of the GB Rowing team, all of whom will be expecting to produce scores comfortably below the six-minute barrier.
Also returning is fourth-place finisher William Lamb. A year ago, Lamb was just shy of the 6:20 barrier, so that will be a clear target for him come Saturday.
As mentioned, the armed forces will be in attendance at BRIC. Last year, the Army Indoor Rowing Team was quickest in the Open 4km relay, and they are well represented in the Open 2000m event, as are third place Sub7 IRC. The Army will be represented by Brody Hannan and Daniel Biggs, while racing for Sub 7 is Jack Webber, who recorded a time of 6:36.0 last year.
Prediction
While FitFest welcomes a range of competitors from across the fitness community it’s difficult to look past some of the engines in the British team. Callum Dixon or Matt Haywood will take the win.
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