Southampton athlete Russell Lloyd rowed to a fantastic first place to win a gold medal in the largest indoor Championship in the history of the sport.

Lloyd, 43, raced to the coveted gold in the hotly-contested Men's 40-44 heavyweight category at the AXE PPP healthcare British Indoor Championship at the Birmingham National Indoor Arena.

Attracting more than 2,550 competitors, the event had the largest nmber of entries in its 12-year history.

And it was in front of the 7,000 crowd that Lloyd raced to a time of six minutes 10.1 seconds over the Olympic Regatta distance of 2,000 metres on the Concept 2 Indoor Rower. He was presented with his medal by TV presenter Beverley Turner.

The event attracted a world class entry and the best of Britain's world class rowing team.

There was also the biggest ever foreign entry, with around 130 competitors coming from as far as the United States, Australia and Singapore to compete.

In categories defined by age and weight, the huge field - with athletes aged between 12 and 91 - were all trying to secure a medal and, most importantly, beat their own personal bests for the 2,000-metre distance.

More than 50 sports and pastimes were represented at the championship, ranging from caber tossing to American Football!

Highlights of the day included American Jamie Schroeder taking the Men's Open title in a time of five minutes, 46.7 seconds with Italy's Olympic rower Mario Palmisano finishing just one tenth of a second behind him to take the silver.

The US team, on its first official visit to the championship won the lion's share of the major medals.