Graham Benton is a British

indoor rower An indoor rower, or rowing machine, is a machine used to simulate the action of watercraft rowing for the purpose of exercise or training for rowing. Modern indoor rowers are often known as ergometers (colloquially erg or ergo) because they m ...

. He has won the

British Rowing Indoor Championships The British Rowing Indoor Championships (BRIC) is an indoor rowing event previously organised by The Rowing Company under the title British Indoor Rowing Championships (BIRC). It first began in 1991 with the first event held in Henley-on-Thames at ...

12 times and the World Indoor Rowing Championships six. While Benton is primarily an indoor rower, he has participated in outdoor rowing competitions, especially for charity.

Athletic career

Benton joined his first indoor rowing competition at age 31. In 2004, Graham Benton became the first non-water rower to win the men's open heavyweight event at the

British Indoor Rowing Championships The British Rowing Indoor Championships (BRIC) is an indoor rowing event previously organised by The Rowing Company under the title British Indoor Rowing Championships (BIRC). It first began in 1991 with the first event held in Henley-on-Thames att ...

at 5:53.5. He went on to win this title again in 2005 (5:46.9), 2006 (5:46.7), 2007, 2008, 2010 (5:50.8), 2011 (5:46), 2012, 2013 (5:52.4), 2014 (5:52.4), 2015 (5:55:6), 2016 (5:55), 2017 (5:55.7), and 2018 Benton also won the 30-39 year heavyweight class World Indoor Rowing Championships in 2004 (5:51.40), 2005 (5:53.60), and 2006 (5:46.40) and in the 40-49 heavyweight class in 2016 (5:48.3), 2017 (5:48), and 2018 (5:54). In 2012, he set a new British record in the 35-39 heavyweight men's class at the British Indoor Rowing Championships (5:50.1), a title previously held by Sir Steve Redgrave since 1998. In 2014, he held the British outright record at 5:42.5 and in 2017, he had the fastest time in the men's heavyweight open 2000m at the Welsh Indoor Rowing Championships. He was a

Henley Royal Regatta Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the thre ...

finalist in outdoor rowing in 2007, 2008, and 2012. He was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by

Concept2 Concept2, Inc. is an American manufacturer of rowing equipment and exercise machines that is based in Morrisville, Vermont. It is best known for its air resistance indoor rowing machines (known as "ergometers" or "ergs"), which are considered t ...

in 2010. Benton previously trained with coach Eddie Fletcher in the ARA World Class Start Program and has been part of Team Taurus, MAD Team IRC, and

Tideway Scullers School Tideway Scullers School is a rowing club on the Tideway of the River Thames next to Chiswick Bridge in Chiswick, London. The club previously held the headship for the Head of the River Race (2009), the largest UK eights event, and the senior sq ...

Personal life

Benton works as a sales leader for

Hewlett Packard Enterprise The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) is an American multinational information technology company based in Spring, Texas, United States. HPE was founded on November 1, 2015, in Palo Alto, California, as part of the splitting of the H ...

UK. He was formerly an "elite-level" cricket bowler and is an alumnus of

King's School, Chester The King's School, Chester, is a British co-educational independent day school for children aged 4 to 18. It is one of the seven 'King's Schools' established (or re-endowed and renamed) by King Henry VIII in 1541 after the Dissolution of t ...

. In 2017, he was based in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benton, Graham British male rowers People educated at The King's School, Chester Living people Sportspeople from Cheshire Year of birth missing (living people)