Two years ago a St Mary's Diocesan student, Jillian Pitman, showed Ann Moore the technique for rowing on an indoor machine.
This year Ann has set and broken two world records.
At Auckland on the weekend, in the world's short course, Ann and Wanganui rower Alison Richards broke the lightweight women's pairs 500-metre record in 1minute 57.3 seconds.
And in May at the New Zealand championships at Kerikeri, Ann set the lightweight mixed pairs record at 1minute 49.8 seconds with Auckland rower Lyndsay Knight, in the 500-metre short course.
Ann also competed in the individual 1000, 500, 300 and 100 metres.
Heading into her 40s, Ann was an endurance cyclist and also played volleyball. She said indoor rowing has helped with her fitness and the results were obvious when she walked her usual route around Stratford, and dropped four minutes off her time.
Ann rows in the gym at the Taranaki Regional Council where she works in IT.
She rows 30 minutes four times a week, a total of about five-and-a-half hours.
On top of that Ann has clocked up almost one-and-a-half-million metres in rowing.
"It took me 13 months to row my first half-a-million, then 11 months to row my next half-a-million."
Her next half-a-million metres she would complete in two weeks in a record six months.
And what does she get out of rowing apart from fitness?
"The rowing fraternity is incredibly supportive, and they cheer you on and give you hints to help you break records."
For now, with a tally of medals under her belt, Ann said she would like to get an indoor club going.
The fifty-something said there were few women her age in the sport and she would like to encourage more to try rowing.
If anyone was interested they could give Ann a call after hours on765 0255.
Record breaking rower
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