Here's my match report from last weekend:
The 2011 Devon Open Indoor Rowing Championships were held at Paignton Health and Leisure Club, based at Devon Hills Holiday Village on the 16th and 17th April. The Championships were held in order to raise funds for the Devon Air Ambulance, and at the time of writing, over £1,000 was raised.
Saturday saw the start of a 24 Hour Endurance Row (report here) and the 1000m and 100m races.
Competitors and spectators started arriving during the morning. It was clear there were plenty of nerves in the air but at the same time old friends caught up with each other and people met for the first time face to face which made for a very sociable atmosphere.
The 1km races started soon after 12 noon after a slight technical delay and the 60-69 Heavweight Men were off and racing. Bill Wright emerged the winner, retaining his title from last year with a very strong 3:13.5.
Bill Wright 3:13.5 - Tommy Gee 3:59.3 - John Gibbins 3:38.0
The 50-59 Heavyweight Men were next and a close fought battle ensued up to the half way mark between Andy Osborn and Mike Forder. Andy managed to put in a decisive burst in the final 250m to take the win in a time of 3:12.9. Mike finished second with 3:17.9.
The ladies race had a very strong line up from Newquay rowing club and some Cornish gig rowers. Naomi Watts pushed into the lead at a pace that many were questioning if she could hold. Some amazing power from Naomi as she managed to take it all the way to within 2 seconds of the 19-29 Hwt British Record with 3:32.4. Jenna Paul who had missed the lightweight weigh-in by a couple of pounds went within 1 second of the 19-29 lightweight British Record with 3:44.3, although she was classed as heavy for the race. Some top standard racing from the rest of the field, another notable Becks Campbell rowing 3:46.2.
Next race was the lightweights and we saw a new British Record set by Dennison Gould (red top) in the 40-49 category, a time of 3:13.4. Dennison couldnt' believe it for ages until we showed him the record list on the Concept2 website!
Next up we had some more lightweights and our only Junior competitor of the day. Joe Keating was in the 60-69 Lwt category, Brian Hussey in the 30-39 Lwt and his son Luke Hussey in the Junior 15 category.
At 2:00pm, we had a special exhibition race for Arnold Cooke to attempt to break the 70-74 Lwt Mens 2000m World Record. Joe Keating rowed alongside him whilst Arnold proved the rowing pedigree he has by smashign the record by a whoel 5 seconds. Arnold was an Oxford Blue and Olympian in the 60's and it was magnificent for us to witness such an impressive display of technique, focus and determination.
Back to the 1k racing next and the 40-49 Hwt Mens race. The British Record holder Gwyn Samuel was on erg 1, Andy Parkes on erg 2 and Colin Leiba on erg 3 - a great line up! Colin, a Navy submariner who went to the World Championships for the Navy over 2k, showed some incredibly raw power and at one point I thought the chain had snapped from the noise it was making! He finished in a time of 2:59.5 which was just 1 second off Gwyn's record but still under the magic 3 minutes he was aiming for.
The 19-29 Heavyweight Men had just 2 entrants due to a withdrawal due to injury. Matt Lewis and Kirtis Bell, both personal trainers from the Leisure Club were going head to head. Kirtis went into the race with a 3:10 PB and Matt had a 3:14 PB, but then both admittedly haven't trained or raced mush on the erg so it was anyone's race. Matt powered home to the win with a very credible 3:07.4 and Kirtis 3:13.9.
The last 1000m race of the day saw event organiser, me, going up against Andrew Mudge who had posted some seriously quick training pieces recently and a relative newcomer from Cornwall, Simon Newton. I wasn't in PB shape so decided to try and adopt a low rate power stroke instead of a high rate lung burner. After a hard start I looked up to see Andy storming off at 1:27 pace... alot quicker than I could match so I settled into a power cruise. Simon was lurking behind me for most of the middle but then started to edge past and then storm off in pursuit of Andy. Andy held off the challenge with a fantastic 2:56.9 whilst Simon clocked a superb 2:58.6. Simon is a fascinating talent, and someone who will be challenging for Gold Medals at nationals before too long on that showing. Charlotte Davey retained her 19-29 Lwt Title alongside us proving she is as enthusiastic as ever!
At the conclusion of the 1000m races, we presented the medals and certificates with the help of Katherine Endacott. Katherine won Gold and Silver at the Comonwealth Games as a sprinter and is in the GB squad for London 2012 as well as the 2014 GB Bobsleigh squad. She also won the BBC SouthWest Sportswoman of the year 2010 title, so we were honoured to have her with us and dish out the bling!
After the medals, we asked for entrants for the 100m races. We had 11 ergs set up and every category was racing together. It was great fun!
I won the first one in 15.2s but I think we all wanted to try and go faster so we did a second run. Simon Newton beat me with 15.2s in that race so we had to have a decider - we both did 15.1s!!! We decided to call it a draw and be done as we were all tired by then! Andy Osborn set a British Record of 16.5s in the 50-59 Hwt category. Jeanette Fulcher set a British Record in the 50-59 category with 21.5s. If Jenna Paul had made weight she would have beaten Charlotte Davey's 19-29 Lwt British Record by 0.1s. Some great sprinting!
Interestingly, we used the "Sit ready, Attention, Row" start which seemd to add on 0.5s to our times as last week I did 14.6 ands 14.7 at Basingstoke using the "5,4,3,2,1,Row" race start command and I was itting similar paces during the piece.
That was the end of the Saturday racing and next stop was the Blagdon Inn for a buffet after 6pm. We had lasagne, chips and garlic bread to give the Sunday marathon rowers some carb loading opportunity, and some beer!
For most, it was an early night and preparation for the marathon. I managed to get two hours sleep before joining Warren and Andy for the 24 hour row which was still going through the night. More of that in the other blog...
Sunday - the marathon racing was due to start at 9.30am and we'd set the room up with 17 ergs, a couple of fans, an ioniser, aircon and then when racing started we opened the doors for fresh air. Despite all that, it was still a little warm due to the smashing spell of weather we're having.
There were 3 Record Attempts on the cards - Julian Bunn, Terry Coging and Roger Bangay all had British or World Records in their sights as they sat down to begin. Roger found it tough going this time round, although he still finished 5 minutes quicker than he did here last year when he broke the World Record. The fact he broke it again since made it very hard for him to snatch another on Sunday! Terry Coging showed extreme determination and willpower to battle against cramp in the last 6k or so to break the 70-74 Hwt World Record in a time of 3:01:14.5! Julian was working hard and the record was in touching distance up until about 6k to go when his body started to struggle. He fought and fought but was unable to edge past the record and was just 41 seconds off the World Record.
Andrew Mudge set the quickest time of the day in a new overall Championship Record of 2:37:39.0. He was pulling 1:53 pace for the first half and then a 1:51 pace second half - truly awesome strength and endurance from him. Stu Thorpe, who has lost 9 stone in weight since beginning ont he Concept2 rower, managed to knock 7 minutes off his PB in a time of 2:52:13.0. In all, 9 rowers broke the magic 3 hour barrier.
After the marathon we had a barbeque outside next to the archery range and some of the competitors had a go at archery for fun and to try something a bit different before making their way home or going back to the accommodation for a well deserved rest.
As the organiser, it was great to see so many people turn up and the atmosphere was truly amazing, such friendly, supportive and determined people gettign together. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, whether they set new PB's or not.
Next Year, we will have a new dance studio which will have a bigger capacity and higher ceilings which should enable us to control the climate a bit better. It's also west facing so the sun won't hit it until after the racing is over. We hope everyone comes back and more decide to join in next time! Here's to 2012...
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