INDOOR rower Anna Bailey of Hanley Swan has become the new Women's 50-59 Heavyweight 2,000 metre world record holder!

At the newly inaugurated Birmingham Indoor Rowing Championships at Cocks Moor Woods Leisure Centre on Sunday, September 16, she took exactly nine seconds off her own British record, and exactly seven seconds off the 1999 world record set by Merete Boldt of Denmark, finishing in a time of 7 minutes 9.6 seconds.

The time was the fastest overall women's time of the competition, and won the award for the outstanding performance of the day. The organisers were delighted that a world record should be broken at their first event.

A race plan had been devised by her coach, Eddie Fletcher, from the One on One Fitness Centre in Evesham, for an attempt on the record, but the result was even better than was hoped for.

Breaking the 7.15 barrier alone would have been more than enough, but breaking 7.10 was a tremendous additional boost. All this has happened in little more than a year of competition for Anna.

Training sessions continue at One on One in Malvern, Evesham and Worcester in preparation for the British Championships, due to be held at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham on November 18, and which are expected to attract around 3,000 entries this year.

The championships are used by many rowing clubs as part of their selection procedure, not least the Oxford and Cambridge hopefuls and several well known Olympic faces.

Concept 2, makers of the machines on which the races are held, have now initiated a Grand Prix series of races for the rest of the season, from those held in England, Wales and Ireland, based on points gained at each race. Dublin sees the first race of the series in December.