The annual British Rowing Indoor Championships (BRIC) were held on Saturday 7-8th December at the Birmingham NEC. Ben Stephens rows with York City Rowing Club and was the fastest 30-39year old over 2 kilometres in the competition with a time of 6 minutes and seven seconds.
Ben beat last years’ winner into second place and a former Team GB Olympic rower into third in a thrilling, close race on Saturday morning.
Ben lives in Barlby and is a maths teacher, when asked about the win he grins “Obviously I'm really pleased, I've been focused on this since I signed up in April. I've always been strong on the erg, and I thought I had a good chance at a medal. I'm so glad it turned out to be gold.”
As with all great athletes, Ben has a long list of people people behind him: “Thanks mostly go to my girlfriend Chloe, as she is very accommodating and supportive of my training schedule, cooks dinners and takes care of home life etc. She's even using the massage gun on my back and hamstrings right now!”
“I've recently started working with an online coach called Kieran Clark (Clark Performance Rowing) who has given me some great insights and helped me improve my technique in a really short space of time. Of course I can't forget to also thank also everyone at York City Rowing Club for their support, too.”
Ben is keen to highlight that rowing is an increasingly accessible sport: “Anyone can get into indoor rowing and they don't need to train as much as I do to get benefits from it. Most gyms have rowing machines and there are loads of tutorials online to teach people basic technique. I got into it quite young, my dad bought a Concept 2 in the late 90s which I used as a teenager, but after watching London 2012 I decided to give it a go properly when I was at Nottingham Trent University.” As for Ben’s plans: “It’s a rest day on Sunday, then the new programme starts on Monday!”