Rowing without getting soaking

9:51am Tuesday 28th November 2006

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AN INDOOR rower got into top gear to win a gold medal at the British Championship in Birmingham.

Neil Gear, 35, was among 2,200 competitors in the largest indoor sporting event in the country.

The Eltham man took on 2,000m in 6mins 31.5secs to claim the top spot in the 35 to 39-year-old lightweight category in front of almost 7,000 spectators.

Elsewhere, Margaret Connolly, 53, from Orpington and Maurice Cox, 75, from Bromley won bronze medals.

Margaret's impressive time of 8mins 33.5secs got her reward in the 50 to 54-year-old lightweight category while Maurice finished in 9mins 52.4secs and took the bronze in the men's 75 to 79-year-old heavyweights.

At the event, the crowd was wowed by amazing performances from a wide variety of competitors from tough Olympians and schoolchildren and paraplegics to World War Two veterans.

More than 900 school children raced took part in the junior and team events and the over-90s age category saw 96-year-old John Hodgson from Leeds take home the coveted gold medal.

In the men's open category, the British and World champion Graham Benton, the European champion Phil Turnham and the top 12 Great Britain rowing team athletes went head-to-head.

Benton took the glory, collecting the gold medal with an impressive time of 5mins 46.7secs.

For a full list of results and images from the championship, visit concept2.co.uk