Rowing: Pinsent sneaks past Cracknell

Competitors and spectators were treated to the sight of the world and Olympic champions Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell for once racing against, rather than with, each other at yesterday's British Indoor Championships in Birmingham.

The golden duo provided a customarily nail-biting finish, as Pinsent, lying second for much of the race, pumped up the rate to erode Cracknell's slight lead. Pinsent overtook on the final stroke, and it was five minutes before anyone in the cheering crowd thought to tell the triple Olympic champion that he had actually won. The time was 5min 47.5sec, the margin just 0.1sec, while their fellow British oarsmen Steve Williams and Ian Lawson tied for third place, seven seconds behind.

The real winner, according to Cracknell, was the pair's reputation. "Matt's well known for his strength: now everyone can see I'm strong too. It makes it a little more daunting for anyone who goes out to race us." Pinsent, meanwhile, was pleased to have paced the race against the competition.

"A one-two finish was something that we both definitely wanted: we didn't want to race each other into oblivion." In all, 17 championship records went, the most impressive in the women's open race, where the reigning world indoor champion, Hurnet Dekkers, broke through a massive lead built up by the Olympian Kath Grainger to grab the Briton's national title.

Grainger faded into third place in the last strokes as the world record-holder, Georgina Evers-Swindell, took the silver medal, but national pride was salvaged as Helen Casey broke her own championship record in the women's lightweight category.

The junior world sculling champion, Matt Langridge, became the first British under-18 to break the six-minute barrier, slicing three seconds off his personal best time. The man whose record he cracked, Peter Fields, graduated to the senior age-group in style, taking four seconds off the Under-23 men's record.

Oxford University's men redeemed themselves after a fiasco of disqualifications at the Four's Head last week, by beating Cambridge to the collegiate team trophy, while their female counterparts pulled off the same trick in the women's event.