Competitions
A large number of indoor rowing competitions are held all over the world, including the indoor rowing world championships (also known as CRASH-B Sprints) held in Boston, Massachusetts, United States in February and the British Indoor Rowing Championships held in Birmingham, England in November; both are rowed on Concept2s. The core event for most competitions is the individual 2,000m; less common are the mile (e.g., Evesham), the 2500m (e.g., Basingstoke — also the original distance of the CRASH-B Sprints). Many competitions also include a sprint event (100m-500m) and sometimes team relay events. The machines used are consistent although the resistance may be adjusted. The resistance adjustment does not affect the energy measurement so a result on one machine can be fairly compared with results on other machines regardless of resistance level.
Most competitions are organized into categories based on sex, age, and weight class. While the fastest times are generally achieved by rowers between 20 and 40 years old, teenagers and rowers over 90 are common at competitions. There is a nexus between performance on-water and performance on the ergometer, with open events at the World Championships often being dominated by elite on-water rowers. Former men's Olympic single scull champions Pertti Karppinen and Rob Waddell and five-time Gold Medalist Sir Steven Redgrave have all won world championships or set world records in indoor rowing.
In addition to live venue competitions, many erg racers compete by internet, either offline by posting scores to challenges, or live online races facilitated by computer connection.
Read more about this topic: Indoor Rower