Roger Stainforth was Durham ARC’s only competitor at the 2025 English Indoor Rowing Championships, the competition which was previously organised by Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club returning on September 6th with a lot of support from British Rowing after a four year absence, and taking place for the first time at the Bolton Arena.
There were some outstanding performances across the day. The results are available here.
In common with the 2024 British Rowing Indoor Championships, the event was run concurrently with a crossfit style competition including Concept 2 ski ergs and bike ergs called The Rainhill Trials, named after the location on the nearby Liverpool and Manchester Railway where in 1829 eight pioneering steam engine inventors were invited to demonstrate their machines in trials to see if they were suitable to haul carriages on the railway. Stephenson’s Rocket was judged the best, and the rest is history.
Rocket replica at Shildon for the Stockton & Darlington Railway 200 celebrations
Roger raced in the 76+ age category in both 2000 and 500 metre distances, in which, being the only competitor, he was assured of gold medals, potential opposition perhaps preferring Banyoles for the World Masters Regatta.
As he explains “Races for me are all about the time achieved for the distance.”
Roger goes on, “My time for the 2k race was 7:52.0, somewhat below expectations. Moments after the start of the race a hooter sounded that normally signifies a false start so a number of us stopped rowing only to be told to carry on as it was actually the start hooter! The early races had a few system glitches and my time is yet to be confirmed.”
“My time for the 500m race was 1:42.8. I am very happy about that time. It’s my quickest for three years, 1.7s quicker than at BRIC 2024 and fastest in the current 2025/26 Concept 2 rankings.”
Entries are open for the 2025 British Rowing Indoor Championships which takes place at Birmingham NEC on December 6th and 7th.