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SUMIT RAI: GOING NOWHERE FAST Sumit Rai was at Dulwich between 1993 and 1999 and by his own admission took full advantage of all the opportunities open to him to represent the College in a wide range of sports. In the Sixth Form he was Captain of the Athletics and Basketball teams, an achievement of which he is still very proud. However, there was no inkling that one day he would become one of the world’s best in a sport not even available to him while at the College. Barely off the plane from the recent World Indoor Rowing Championships, Sumit took time to reflect on a career both on and off an ‘ergo’.
Did you get involved in sport once you had left DC? Straight after Dulwich I played a year of basketball with Crystal Palace, who were in the Budweiser League, the top division at the time. It was a real baptism of fire going straight from school basketball into the men’s top league. When I went to university I also played basketball for UCL, but unfortunately my sporting career ended around the age of 20 due to ongoing knee and ankle problems, which eventually led to knee surgery. How and why did you take up indoor rowing? I actually fell into indoor rowing completely by accident. A few years ago I started boxing, and rowing was part of the conditioning work. I realised I was quite good at the short sprints, so I started entering my times into the Concept2 rankings. When did you realise you had a talent for it? Once I started entering the rankings, I noticed I was consistently sitting in the top 10 in the UK for my age group across several events, particularly 100m, 1 minute, and 500m. That was when I realised it might be worth taking a bit more seriously. Why do you enjoy it – apart from the fact you are pretty good! The rowing ergometer is probably one of the best machines you can use in a gym. It tests both cardio and strength, and once you start to understand all the numbers on the screen such as pace, stroke rate and power it becomes very engaging from a sort of gamification perspective. It has also given me a lot of discipline and routine. The machine doesn’t lie! if you haven’t trained properly, it will tell you immediately. 2000m is the traditional rowing distance, however your success has come at quite a variety of other distances. While 2km is the traditional rowing race distance, it’s not really where my strengths lie. I can just about, on a good day, get under 7 minutes, but my natural style is very much that of a sprinter. The races that suit me best are 100m, 250m, 1 minute, and 500m. Anything much beyond 500m starts to become a different kind of race entirely. What have been your best achievements? My best achievements so far include: Bronze medal at the British Indoor Rowing Championships last December (2025) This year I have achieved a Silver medal at the French National Championships for 500m with a time of 1:18.8; I was beaten by just
0.2 seconds by an Olympian who set a national record in the same race. A few weeks ago I gained 4th place at the World Indoor Rowing Championships in the 1-minute event for my age group, with 394m, which also placed me 21st overall across all age groups. What comes next? World Rowing runs a virtual racing series over the summer, but now that the main season has finished my focus will be on off-season training which means a lot more long rowing sessions and strength work, with the aim of being in peak condition for the first major competitions in September. I’ve also set myself the challenge of getting under 1:18.2 for the 500m, which is the best time Sir Steve Redgrave achieved at the peak of his career. What sort of training do you do? A lot of rowing and a lot of weight training. Because I focus on sprint events, muscle strength and explosive power are very important in getting the pace down for the short distances I race. Any special diet? This is something I am currently working on. Realistically I need to lose around 20kg to reach my optimum racing weight. My focus is on high protein and plenty of green vegetables, but on heavy training days I also increase my carbohydrate intake, as it’s essential for performance, particularly when training for sprint power. How do you prepare mentally? There is a lot of mental preparation before races, very similar to other athletics events. I spend time visualising the race and walking through mentally my strategy, making sure I know exactly how fast I want to go at each stage. I also like to watch great sporting moments on my phone before competing to help get into a competitive, champion mindset. What do you do for your day job? I’m the Chief Product Officer at Blackbird plc, the makers of elevate.io, an online collaborative video editing platform.
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