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The first South African Indoor Rowing Championships took place on October 1 in East London. A great day's racing saw Blake Artherton crowned as the fastest man, with a time of 6:21.2, while Jenienne Curr was the fastest woman in 7:20.2. The Champion of Champions, meanwhile, was Harold Hobson, who won the Men's 50-54 event in 6:40.7.

Well done to everybody who took part, and special congratulations to all those who stayed behind afterwards to do the half marathon race.

• 2,000m results
• Half marathon results

The first official South African National Indoor Rowing Championships takes place on 1 October at the Orient Theatre in East London. Whether you are an avid rower or a social one, this event is for you and is certainly not to be missed!

Athletes competing in this regatta can expect an all inclusive range of events for both men and women, young and not so young. In partnership with the Clarendon Rowing Club and Selborne Rowing Club, the Leander Rowing Club will be the hosts for this event.

For more information, queries and entries, please visit http://www.saergo.co.za.

A key component of any good training plan is testing. Regular testing, over the same time or distance, is the best way to monitor the progress of your training.

Concept2 has established the SkiErg Performance Series—a program of consistent, scheduled testing over a range of test distances designed to inform smart training.

Anyone is welcome to submit results for all or any of the test distances in each of the four test periods. Visit skierg.co.za/logbook/performance-series for complete details including how to submit results to the online logbook.

One can see by the sheer number of meters amassed during the World Erg Challenge that people take their erging very seriously. The WEC is one of those challenges that inspires people to test their limits, set workout goals and encourage and support team members.

This year's WEC couldn't go by without mentioning Judy Abbott and Wikus Loots, the overall WEC leaders. Judy Abbott is a 69-year-old rower at Community Fitness Pointe in Munster, Indiana. Judy hit her goal of rowing two million meters for the challenge on April 11, 2011, and completed 2,155,241 meters in all. She rowed the most meters of any woman in the challenge. Judy is one of an incredible, inspiring group of seniors staying fit with indoor rowing at Community Fitness Pointe.

Judy checked in with us during the challenge to say, "I am at Fitness Pointe nearly 10 hours a day, go home, ice, eat, sleep and head back to row some more. We have a great group of rowers at Fitness Pointe who all cheer me on (while laughing at the pile of snacks under my indoor rower), but I row every single meter myself."

South African Wikus Loots is a 38-year-old rower who took leave from work to focus on the challenge. He rowed with virtual club Shosholoza and completed 2,563,828 meters! His past activities include karate, rugby and kayaking and he has been rowing since 2008. Wikus says, "Through encouragement from fellow kayakers I took on the 2011 WEC. Finishing [the challenge] with an average of about 80k per day, I bettered my 2010 WEC distance by about 100k. Judy Abbott, who must be an amazing person, deserves all the accolades for the 2011 WEC. She stunned me with her brilliant distance. Well done, Judy!"

Congratulations, Judy and Wikus!