Day 1 Saturday 10th
With rain threatening but not falling, Day One of World Masters Games (WMG) Rowing got off to a flying start - by lunchtime several crews had already won and lost finals races.
WMG Rowing is the largest regatta ever held in the Southern hemisphere: it lasts for 5 days, hosts more than 850 races, and accommodates 4638 crews. Rowing at the Olympic Games, by contrast, hosts 196 crews over eight days of competition.
Day One of WMG Rowing was run to a necessarily tight schedule: 179 races, over 1000metres, with less than 5minutes separating each race. This not only required hasty preparation from all of the crews, but tight administration efforts from volunteers.
Throughout the day, all shapes, sizes and ages of rowers raced, many tested by the sharp cross-course breeze that blew throughout the day. Masters Rowing is divided into age divisions, and on Day One of WMG Rowing, classes A through to I were all represented. Competitors ranged from 27 (some coxswains were younger) to 80 years-old. And racing highlights were evenly spread throughout these varied age groups.
The discerning rowing fan would have spotted multiple celebrities on Day One. Former national representatives, Olympians and World Champions (and not just from Australia) all took to the water at the Sydney International Regatta Centre (SIRC) for an intense – if sometimes overcast – day of racing.
One such rowing celebrity was Kat Ross (silver medallist at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games). Ross continued her run of good form, winning gold in the WMG Adaptive TA (Trunk and Arms) Single Scull (in a time of 2.23.13).
Eliciting some of the loudest cheers was the Mens I Eight. Though The Canberra Composite crew emerged triumphant (in a time of 3.37.48), all crews (of an average age of 75 years to less than 80 years) were raucously received by the grandstand spectators.
The Women’s G Double Scull (in which a crew’s average age is 65 years to less than 70 years) garnered a similarly warm response, as the German/Danish pairing of Almut Gaebel and Merte Boldt finished the 1000m course in an unbeatable time of 4.13.68.
Tight margins quickly became the norm of Day One racing. Former Australian representative Richard Powell and his partner Dale Hawkins, won the Mens B Double Scull (for ANA Rowing Club), but Dynamo-Moscow pairing of Askathov and Ovechko were just 0.1 seconds behind them.
In the Men’s E Quad, Peter Antoine (medallist in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games) and the Melbourne Uni crew beat the Murwillumbah-based J3R by just .39 seconds - less than one-third of a length separated first from third place.
With the WMG Rowing schedule now in full swing, Day Two promises to be a full and competitive day of racing.
Visit our YouTube website to see a slideshow of Day One photographs.
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