Lucas fifth at GB Indoor Rowing Championship

BILL LUCAS, 22, the Kingswear-based Dart Totnes sculler who is part of the GB rowing squad, took fifth place at the British Indoor Rowing Championship with a time of five minutes 54.2 seconds.

Overall winner was Garath Archer, 34, of Durham ARC in 5.51.1. Twelve of the top 14 positions were taken by GB squad members, which included Steve Rowbotham, 28, who won bronze in 5.52.8. Olympic double scull bronze medallist Rowbotham is the son of Chris Rowbotham, a former Torquay Boys' Grammar School pupil, and has family dotted all over South Devon and the South Hams including his uncle Chris Singer, a former South Devon police commander.

The British Indoor Rowing Championship is the world's biggest indoor rowing race and the largest indoor sporting event in the UK.

More than 2,000 competitors raced at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. It takes place in a high-octane environment with races going on throughout the day. Competitors race up to 2,000m in the quickest possible time.

The championship attracts sporting legends and stars. Over the years it has become an integral part of the training and selection programmes for the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race crews, and the British rowing squad.

In the men's 30-34 category Graham Lay, 34, of Paignton H & L was 12th in 6.38.9, behind the category winner, Tim Perkins, 32, of Lea RC who won in 6.06.4.

In the men's U15 category, Simon Kerswell-Jensen, 14, of Dart Totnes was eighth, having rowed 1436 metres in the allotted time behind category winner, Callum Jones, 14, of St Edwards School who rowed 1529 metres.

Two Exeter scullers excelled in the men's U18 category with Marcus Bowyer, 16, taking gold in 6.08.9 to win the title won last year by Barney Stentiford of Dart Totnes. Clubmate Chris Humphreys, 16, was fifth in 6.26.9.

Debbie Flood, 29, of HMPS won the overall women's title in 6.52.2. The oldest competitor in the Championship, 99 year old John Hodgen of Leeds, won the 90+ category in 12.21.0.