Exceptional quality of racing at the World Rowing Masters in St Catharines, Canada

08/09/2010

The 2010 World Rowing Masters Regatta continues to show that rowing is a sport accessible for life. St Catharines in Canada played host to the regatta that began in 1973 and has developed into an experience that sees novice rowers racing against past-Olympians. St Catharines’ Martindale Pond, the home of the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta and the 1999 World Rowing Championships, is well equipped for the fast pace of the masters regatta that has 1000m races coming down the course at three to four minute intervals.

Tough weather conditions
The weather was not completely kind this year with two of the four days disrupted by strong wind. Friday’s racing was delayed by 90 minutes due to thunderstorms, while on Saturday the afternoon’s events had to be cancelled. Still, with competitors entered in multiple events, everyone got their fair share of racing, even those on the organising committee. The regatta attracted 35 countries with over 8180 seats being raced. This included the ever-popular mixed racing on Sunday. Regatta co-chair George Darte said entries were way up for these races in doubles, quads and eights that are able to be entered right up to two days before. As a one euro donation per seat goes to junior rowing development, over 8000 Euros were raised for the fund.

Exceptional quality of racing
Overall there were 1404 men’s entries, 1015 women’s entries and 424 mixed entries. The average age for the men was 54 and 48 for the women. Charles Eugster (SUI) was the oldest competitor at 91 years old, followed by Emery Lang (Can), 89. Amongst the women Nelly Brandsma (AUS) was the oldest at 85, followed by Marjorie Burgard (USA), 81. Regatta co-chair George Darte who had seven events to race, admitted that no medals came his way. “The quality of racing was absolutely exceptional,” said Darte. “I think it’s getting harder to win these damn medals. I think people are training harder.”

Boat hire service
One feature of the regatta is a boat hire service so that rowers do not have to bring their own boats with them. “The service worked very well,” said Darte. “We had a lot of cooperation from Fluidesign, Swift, Concept2 and provincial clubs helped out from as far away as Buffalo New York.” In 2011, the World Rowing Masters Regatta will go to Poznan, Poland, from 8 to 11 September.

Source: worldrowing.com

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