THE OPENING of a hotel fitness club around the corner from her Kendal home started a sequence of events that led to Sue Little breaking a British record.

It was Sue's decision four and a half years ago to step on to a rowing machine at the newly-opened fitness club in the Castle Green Hotel that began the story.

It ended in her smashing the British record for her age group at the annual British Indoor Rowing Championships when one of more than 2,500 hopefuls competing in front of a 6,000-strong audience at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.

Such was the thrill of the achievement, she jumped up and punched her arms in the air!

As an ex-PE teacher, Sue, of Oak Tree Road, Kendal, has always kept fit by playing hockey, squash and running.

But it was when she and her husband Neil took up indoor rowing that she found she had an exceptional talent and about two years ago she began to get serious about competing at it.

Incredibly, the British Championships was her first competitive event after countless hours of training by herself.

"When I decided to give the rowing machine a try I didn't realise where it would lead, " she said.

"I knew I was not bad at it because when I studied the annual list of best times issued by Concept 2, the machine's manufacturers, mine was not far off the best for my age."

She bought one of the state-of-the-art Concept machines which cost just under £1,000 and decided last July to go into hard-training with running and weight training included in a stiff 18-week programme in the lead-up to the championships.

It culminated in her finding herself sitting next to an American ex-world record-holder when the competition got real at Birmingham. They were competing in a 2k race the equivalent of the standard outdoor test and Sue was not over-awed.

"Taking part in the competition helped and I rowed faster than I did on my own in a back-room with nothing to egg you on," she said.

When she finished and glanced at her time of 7min. 42.8 seconds she realised she had set a personal-best and smashed the British record for the 50-59 age group which had stood at just over eight minutes.

"There was a sense of real achievement and I leapt up and punched the air, but it was a bit embarrassing and I was told to sit down while the other competitors finished."

Now Sue, who hoping to take up the offer an an expenses-paid trip to compete at the World Championships in Boston in the United States at the end of February and take part in the North of England Championships and other events on the grand-prix circuit.

January 17, 2003 10:31