GRAHAM BENTON made history in Birmingham yesterday by becoming the first non-specialist rower to win the British Indoor Championships. The ergometer enthusiast was challenged strongly in the men’s Open championship to 1,500 metres by Matthew Wells, the Britain Olympic sculler, but, representing Mad Team IRC, Benton then opened up a length’s lead at the finish.

The top five Open finishers all broke the six-minute barrier and Oxford laid down a strong Boat Race challenge when five of their squad (of whom four beat the barrier time) were in the top six finishing places in the BUSA section of the event. The fastest was Jason Flickinger, the second-fastest man of the day, only a second slower than Benton. Flickinger, a new Oxford recruit from the United States, was followed home by Peter Reed, a 2004 Oxford Blue.

There were fewer Britain internationals found in the men’s Open events yesterday, perhaps since attendance is not a selection requirement this year, but the international flavour was definitely seen in the Boat Race hopefuls’ line-ups, where internationals from Britain, Germany, Canada and the United States were all trying to make an early case for a Boat Race seat next March. The battle of the new Presidents was won by Andrew Shannon, of Cambridge, five seconds faster than Robin Bourne-Taylor, of Oxford, who was a member of the Britain Olympic eight.

Debbie Flood was the only women’s Olympic medal-winner on show and duly won the BUSA trophy. She was the fastest woman competitor, half a second outside the BUSA record and one second faster than Annie Vernon, the Open category winner. “I seem to be doing 2½ jobs at the moment with studying, training and post-Olympic appearances,” Flood said. Her time of 6min 47sec was better than she had expected and only eight seconds outside her personal best.