British indoor rowing record holder Phil Turnham reveals the time, effort and passion it takes to dedicate your life to a sport.

Within the world of professional sport a split second can mean the difference between winning and losing. The same is true when it comes to setting records.

Phil Turnham recently broke the British record for 2,000m on an indoor rowing machine in the 19 to 29 years age group during routine testing at his rowing club.

The record had previously been held by Matthew Pincent, who has won four Olympic gold medals, and Phil managed to beat it by 0.1 of a second, finishing with a time of 5:42.5.

However, while the 28-year-old might have a natural affinity for the indoor rowing machine, his passion lies on the water.

Phil originally started out as a swimmer and still coaches in the time he has left after training. In 2004 he was forced to take time off due to illness and it was during this period that he heard about the World Class Starts scheme.

"I played basketball for a year then a friend of mine said that the World Class Start was doing testing to pick people from other sports to give rowing a go and I thought I would give that a shot," he explained. "That was back in the summer of 2005 and it just sort of snowballed from there really."

The World Class Start programme was set up by British Rowing in 2001 with the aim of attracting more people to the sport. A number of those who make it through the scheme's training programme go on to represent Great Britain in international competitions. Eight locations in the UK are home to World Class Start initiatives and Phil originally started his training in Nottingham.

Around 18 months after starting his journey into rowing he was advised that if he wanted to get serious about the sport he would need to move south. He rowed with the team at Reading University for a year, before joining the Leander club in Henley. Phil says that having a natural talent for the indoor rowing machine meant his development as a rower was different from most. He advises that anyone looking to take up the sport should start by joining a rowing club.

"If I was to do my time again I would probably join a club first and build up a club environment where there is not as much pressure to perform and then you can learn the basic skills and progress from there," he explained.

Currently a normal day at the club for Phil begins with a training session on the water starting at 08:00 BST. This will be followed by a break for food, more time on the water, another break for food and then weight training or something similar in the afternoon. *"It is approaching 20 hours a week, maybe 25 which is really heavy training," *he added.

This training also incorporates work on the indoor rowing machine, which Phil says is a "fantastic tool", especially because at 6 foot 8 inches other sports can be tricky.

"I'm quite a big guy so I'm not very well suited to running or things like that, I find it is quite hard, whereas if I can jump on the machine it's a lot less strain on the joints," Phil explained.

As for the future, Phil and the rest of the club are currently training to qualify for the Henley Royal Regatta, which takes place later in the summer. In terms of personal goals Phil is determined to continue working on his performance.

"I'm not sure if it is an age thing, maybe I just came into the sport too late, but I would quite like to someday transfer what I can do on the indoor rowing machine onto the water, but at the moment unfortunately it is looking a long way off."