YORK’S Adam Janes is an indoor rowing record-breaker.

The St Peter’s School pupil broke the record for rowing 2,000 metres in the junior 18 category at the British Indoor Rowing Championships.

The record had stood for more than 11 years and belonged to Matt Langridge, who later that year became world junior 18 champion in the single sculls.

Langridge is now a senior world and Olympic rowing champion and is expected to be racing at London 2012 this summer.

Janes, 18, has been close to the record before but this time beat it by more than a second, recording an exceptional time of five minutes, 58.3 seconds.

Jamie MacLeod, St Peter’s director of rowing, said: “He rowed a perfect race, keeping as much energy in reserve for his final-minute dash for the finish.

“For those of you who use indoor rowing machines, it represents a 500-metre split time of one minute, 29.5 seconds – try it just for a few strokes.

“What is exciting about Adam is that, as well as being champion indoors, he can also move a sculling boat very quickly on the water.

“Next year he goes to study at Harvard, where no doubt his rowing talents will be appreciated.”

Janes was also among the medals when representing St Peter’s School during the Ghent International Regatta in Belgium.

Pupils from the York school won four gold medals, two silvers and a bronze – the largest haul the school has achieved in a competition which attracts some of the best junior rowers from nine European countries.

In the under-23 single sculls, Janes won two gold medals over the two days, winning each race by more than nine seconds.

The third gold was in the under-23 coxless fours, where Rory Wells, Ali Stephenson, Janes and Jeffrey Cho dominated their race and won by more than ten seconds.

The other crew to strike gold were Wells, Stephenson, Oli Braidwood and Freddie Jagger, with Emily Gray at the rudder.

Hannah Burke earned a silver medal in her first junior 16 single sculls race – a feat matched by the junior 18 boys’ eight.

A bronze went to the junior 16 coxed four of Sam Philpott, Alex Payne, Dan James and Chris Andrews, coxed by Emily Gray.

The next major event for the crews is the National Schools’ Regatta in Nottingham in June.