This race’s front row was dominated by 1 man and 1 group. Rugby international, and BIRC veteran Garath Archer was in the middle, while he was surrounded by the entirety of the GB heavyweight men’s squad.

During the race, it was Archer to push out the initial lead and get 10m clear from the pack. The pack looked like a defensive line on the screen, no-one ahead of the other until Steve Rowbotham pulled ahead into 2nd in the 2nd 1000m.

After that in the final 500m the pack started to pull back the non-rower with Cameron Nichol muscling his way into second and touching the 1:25s to get into contention with Archer. Nichol was arms the same size as most people’s legs was dragging in Archer in the last 100m, but Archer stayed on to the line.

Archer won in 5:51.1, Nichol 2nd with 5:51.5 and Rowbotham 3rd in 5:52.8.
Archer wins the champion of champions trophy for the quickest race of the day!