He Broke the 1,000-Meter Indoor Rowing World Record by Just Over a Second
3 min read · RealCase summary
Phil Clapp broke the 1,000-meter Concept2 RowErg indoor rowing world record with a time of 2:38.2, rowing at an average stroke rate of 40 and hitting a peak power output of 707 watts. That beat the previous record of 2:39.3, set by strongman James Hall in October 2022, by 1.1 seconds — and made Clapp a two-time world record holder, having already set the 500m world record in March 2024 at 1:09.8.
He came into the record with an established indoor rowing résumé: 2023 British Champion at 2,000m, four consecutive 500m world titles at the World Rowing Indoor Championships from 2020 through 2023, and, in 2024, the 1,000m British Super Sprint Championship at Super Sprint Sunday during the British Rowing Indoor Championships, finishing in 2:45.1, along with gold in that event's 100m (0:13.2) and 250m (0:33.8) races.
"Months and years of training culminated today, reaching a level I've only ever matched on two 500m efforts," Clapp said on Instagram after the row. "It has been over 4 years since I achieved 2:39.6." He described the buildup as four months of consistent training capped by six weeks of racing multiple 1km efforts on both land and water, including at the British Rowing Indoor Championships and beach sprint assessments — outings he'd deliberately kept controlled, knowing a bigger effort was still to come. "Today I just let rip from stroke one," he said.
Key takeaways
- ›Set a new 1,000-meter Concept2 RowErg world record of 2 minutes, 38.2 seconds
- ›Beat the previous record of 2:39.3, set by strongman James Hall in October 2022, by 1.1 seconds
- ›Set his second individual world record within a year, having also broken the 500-meter record (1:09.8) in March 2024, and won four straight 500m world titles from 2020-2023
Original source
Read the original (British Rowing)
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