2004 AXA PPP healthcare British Indoor Rowing Championship Race Reports
With five minutes to go before the first race, everybody's getting ready. None more so than race control. This year should, hopefully, see the debut of the wireless race system, with all 120 machines connected up to the new race system. At 8:54 things aren't looking too clever. At 9:03 the sun shines in Birmingham and the race system works.
Race 1
Women 30-34 Hwt, Women 35-39 Hwt, Women 40-44 Hwt, Women 45-49 Hwt, Women 50-54 Hwt, Women 55-59 Hwt
With six separate categories, it's always tricky working out what's going on in the first couple of races of the day. In the Women's 35-39 Hwt race it's Megan Brown who establishes an early lead. Megan took fourth at the World IRC in Febuary, but she looks good to finish in the medals today. Neck and neck with her is Rachel Scott, the favourite in the 30-34 Hwt race. Rowing at 25/26 strokes a minute, she's rowing a powerful, good-looking stroke and with 400 metres to go she starts cranking up the pace and comes through the line at 7:14.9, the first gold medallist of the day. Just behind her, Megan comes through in an excellent 7:18.0 while Anna Bailey continues her domination of the 50-54 Hwt category.
Race 2
Men 50-54 Hwt, Men 55-59 Hwt, Men 60-64 Hwt, Men 65-69 Hwt, Men 70-74 Hwt, Men 80-89 Hwt, Women 60-64 Hwt, Women 65-69 Hwt, Women 70-74 Hwt
Race 2 is led from start to finish by the legendary Andy Ripley. Andy has more British IRC medals than anybody else, and he's never seriously threatened in the 55-59 Hwt category, winning in the impressive time of 6:23.0. The 50-54 Hwt race is a bit of a corker meanwhile; Paul Langguth rows an excellent second half of his race to take the 50-54 Hwt title in 6:25.7. Behind him, Martyn Low, who's struggling with a calf injury, manages to hold off Alex Brown for the silver medal.
Races 3-5
Due to mechanical recalcitrancy, we were unable to be present for these races, so there's no reports, sorry. Curse the man who invented computers, curse Charles Babbage. However, despite a couple of heart in the mouth moments, the race system seems to be bearing up well. Which means that, in theory anyway, race results should be up on the website within five minutes of the end of each race, although things are running about 15 minutes behind schedule.
Race 6
Women J13
For the first time this year, the Junior events are based on distance rather than time in line with the ARA Go-Row scheme to introduce youngsters to rowing. This means that the J13s are racing over three minutes. The ever enthusiastic Nigel Mayglothling, who's commenting on the floor, gets somewhat carried away, describing it as "it's fun, it's children exploding!". We're hoping for the cleaners sake he's only speaking figuratively. Ruth Rhyman covers an excellent 762 metres in the distance to bag the gold.
Race 7
Men J13
Sam Howell from St Neots RC gets away at an immense 1:40 pace, rating up at 37 strokes a minute. Also going strong is James Fox from Peterborough, blasting away and with a minute to go he's looking immensely good. Daniel Ashworth, however, strings together a fantastic last part of the race and despite James' best efforts, he wrests the race away from him, winning by a single metre from James in a personal best distance of 885 metres.
Race 9
Men Junior 14
If you went on a long space journey and returned to what you thought was Earth and instead found a land populated by giants, then the children would all resemble the front line of the junior races at BIRC. Last year Christopher Johnstone finished second to Tom Lennon and from the start it's clear that he's determined to take revenge. A big unit, he carves out a meaty, strong stroke, hitting sub-1:40s and opening up a unsurpassable gap. Behind him, Tom Lennon and Daniel Middleton are involved in a see-saw race for the medals. With thirty seconds left to go, Tom looks like he's struggling a bit and his splits wobble. With Daniel taking silver, it requires a big effort for Tom to hold on to bronze from the strong finishing Will Tew and Matthew Powell.
Race 10
Women Junior 15
Racing over five minutes, this is going to be a close race. After a minute, Olivia Oakes hits the front. Olympic gold medallist Martin Cross, who's doing colour commentary, is very impressed by her technique, noting that it's hooked up from front to back. With a minute to go, however, Emily Harrington makes a huge surge, and she crests past Olivia. Another Peterborough rower, Emily finishes first with 1341 metres, eight ahead of Olivia. In her post-race interview, Emily says she was struggling to carry on, but she did, and she's obviously a genuinely talented athlete. As Martin notes, if she carries on in the sport she's definitely one to watch in the future.
Race 11
Men Junior 15
As Nigel points out, you can tell how the sport is moving on, as everybody on the front row is taller than Martin Cross, and he's an Olympic legend. Cool.
The front row takes a while to get away due to a combination of false startitis and hiccuping race systems. When it does get away it's like a battle charge. All the waiting means that everybody blasts out the blocks. The early lead is held by Jonathan Martin while Dan Page and Phil Clapp get away well too. With two minutes to go both Dan and Phil have hit the front, with Dan holding a big lead. Although Phil comes back at him, he's left himself a bit too much to do, falling five metres short of Dan's 1513. Behind them Jordan Hislop really lowers his splits, hitting low 1:30s and snatches a hard-fought for bronze.
Race 12
Men Junior 16, Women Junior 16
This race is bossed by an awesome Daniel Bream. He delivers the most commanding row of the day so far, finishing in 6:28.8, well ahead of the rest of the field. Behind him there’s a titanic battle for second place between Will Martin, Alex Walker and Matt Hellier. Alex looks out with 500 metres to go, but he throws everything at it for his finish and he takes a dramatic silver, finishing just three-tenths of a second ahead of Will, who himself is less than a second in front of Matt.
The Women's J16 race is also led from start to finish by an equally dominant rower, with Jenny Cogger taking her third British IRC title with 7:34.7. Behind her, Charlotte Jenkins takes silver with 7:45.1, ahead of bronze medallist and Manchester Grand Prix champion Hannah Unsworth.
Race 13
Women J18 Hwt, Men J18 Lwt
After 500 metres, Dominic Pitt has the advantage in the Men's race, although Bob Hewitt and Alex Gerald are lurking at his shoulder ready to pounce. At the halfway stage, it's clear that Dominic is struggling after going off hard, and Bob starts to wind the pace up, going away from the race of the field. He looks calm sits at 1:40 pace, and the rest of race has his name stamped all over it. He finishes with some powerful strokes of 1:33 and a time of 6:30.6. Behind him Ryan Meyers and Gareth Storey have emerged from the pack to duel over second place. When the line comes, it's Gareth who emerges victorious.
In the Women's J18 Hwt, Lauren Fisher and Lindsay Muir are deadlocked at the halfway stage, although Fisher looks to have the momentum, and so it proves as she pulls away to win in 7:15.6.
Race 14
Men Junior 18 Hwt, Women Junior 18 Lwt
There's a great line up for this race and the guys steam off the mark, getting to 500 metres at a rate of knots. Harry Scarr shows first, dipping below 1:30 briefly and emerging in the lead. Behind him, Leander's Andrew Walker looks relaxed and focussed. At the half-way stage, Harry has a couple of metres lead. A couple of hundred metres later, however, it's obvious that Walker is going make a move and he slowly lowers his pace, squeezing up his rate. With 500 to go it's Walker in the lead and he's consistently quicker than the rest of the field. Scarr is holding off Ben Smissen but with 200 to go it's Smissen who's flying. Walker is flying at 1:28, but Smissen is now going at 1:26 and has the strongest finish. Walker is too far of everybody else, however, and and wins in 6:09.2, an adult time in what is supposed to be a junior race. With the crowd on their feet roaring, Smissen just manages to get his nose in front of Scarr before the line, taking second by the smallest of margins: 6:12.3 against Scarr's 6:12.4.
Race 15
Men 30-34 Lwt, Men 35-39 Lwt, Men 40-44 Lwt
The pre-race favourite for the 30-34 Lwt is Richard Wilder, the current world champion. Straight away he hits the front, consistently churning out a 1:34 pace. Behind him there's some meat on the bone for the other medals with Mark Mitchell, Dan Staite, Anders Brabaek and Hywel Davies all up there. It's Mitchell who's ahead of the rest from early on, but he can't shake of Staite and the experienced Braebek is close. With 150 to go, Staite ups the ante, charging along at 42 strokes a minute and he finally breaks Mitchell. With metres to go, Brabaek also manages to slip in front of Mitchell too to win the first overseas gold medal of the day for the 35-39 Lwt race. Richard Wilder just falls slightly off the pace for the last 250 metres but stills gets a new championship record of 6:14.8, just outside Tom Kay's British record.
Race 16
Men 45-49 Hwt
At the start, last year's winner Ian McNuff flies out of the trap to establish an early lead. Behind him Pat Gannon also gets off well and they both settle into 1:32s, matching each other stroke for stroke. Marcus Harvey and Nick Rockliffe are also level pegging a couple of metres further back. At the halfway stage, Gannon has started to drift back and he comes within Harvey's reach. With 500 to go, those two are perfectly matched, but it's Harvey who's looking the more confident. In fact, he starts to make ground on McNuff, who's forced to up his rate in order to try and hold him off. With 200 to go, McNuff is obviously in pain trying to retain his title, but it's Harvey who starts to fall apart under the strain and all of sudden Gannon's back into contention for silver. With grimaces on their face that are visible from France, those two stagger across the line. As the dust settles and the applause rings out around the arena, it's a dead heat, the fairest result in what's the best race of the day so far.
Race 17
Men 40-4 Hwt
There's a multi-national flavour to this race, with some of the favourites including last year's triple crown winner Antti Niskanen from Finland and South Africa's Andrea Van Tonder. After a quarter of the race these two are in the lead along with Tony Edwards. Slowly, the 6'8" Finn with hands that could clasp an oak starts to eke out a lead. Tonder refuses to lie down, however, and he comes back slightly at him. All of sudden, Van Tonder puts the hammer down and lowers it to 1:30 pace with 500 to go. Niskanen now looks in a bit of bother and it's it's clear that he's struggling, his splits flying out to 1:42. Van Tonder, meanwhile, is trucking along merrily, and finishes in a world class time of 6:05.3, just outside the championship record. Niskanen, meanwhile, manages to find just enough to hold off Tony Edwards for the silver.
Race 18
Men 35-39 Hwt
This race sees another meeting between Nik Fleming and Tony Larkman. These two have been involved in some fantastic tussles, including the best indoor race we've ever seen, when they were part of a three-way tie for world championship gold with Chris Rushton.
There's a huge start with some real power being applied, none more than by John O'Grady who hits a 1:12 for this third stroke. Julian Tomkinson also gets off strongly, and by 500 metres he's a canvas in front of Larkman, who in turn in just ahead of Marek Hebda and Nik Fleming. With 800 gone Larkman and Tomkinson are level, both scooting along at 1:31. Now it's Nik Fleming who starts to show, nicking a couple of metres here and there and he draws level with Tomkinson, Larkman out in front by a couple of metres. With 600m to go, both Larkman and Fleming have started to wind it up, these two going along at 1:30 pace. Larkman's got a huge finish, however, so Fleming needs to make his move sooner rather than later. Fleming tries his best to apply some pressure and Larkman is forced to drop his pace to 1:29 and then 1:27. With his rate going up and up, Larkman wins the race, narrowly failing to become the first person on the day to go under six minutes, finishing in 6:00.6. Fleming takes silver with 6:03.3, Tomkinson bronze with 6:05.4.
Race 19
Men 30-34 Hwt
With no clear favourite in this race, the field looks wide open. After 500 metres there's a front pack of David Newman, Duncan Hawkins and Graham Kirk while behind them there's a grouping of about half a dozen people, including Rob Smith and John Davies. As things start to shake out at the halfway mark, it's Hawkins from Kirk from Newman from Smith. As they came to the final 500, Hawkins starts to gradually lower his pace, ending up at 1:29. Behind him the pace is starting to tell ever so slightly on Kirk, and Newman starts to creep closer and closer to him. With 150 to go, Hawkins has the title in his bag and Newman and Kirk are level pegging until with a last burst Newman takes second place.
Race 20
Women BUSA Hwt, Women BUSA Lwt
With an increase in the number of BUSA points available for the championship, the BUSA races are of high quality this year, and the Women's Hwt race includes Debbie Flood, who won silver in the quad at Athens. Debbie is a hugely talented athlete and she remorselessly grinds out a huge lead, settling into a rigourous routine of 1:43 strokes. Behind her Laura Wheeler is in second place for most of the race, duelling with Jessie North. Flood wins in 6:47.9, a superb time, while Wheeler takes what turns out to be a relatively easy silver.
The Lightweight race is won by Sally Orr whose time of 7:17.7 is six seconds faster than everybody else.
Race 21
Men BUSA Lwt
We're now running an impressive 70 minutes behind schedule, but the race system has held up well so far. This means that, come Monday, everybody who raced at the championship will be able to access their race splits and stroke data on-line.
Tom Hanna from Aberdeen University has the most powerful start, hitting sub-1:20 pace. Rowing nice and smooth, he's established a small lead after 400 metres from Ben Sanderson and James Pickett. Hanna has opened his lead to about a length by the halfway mark and looks to be controlling the race. Behind him, Ben Tipney has joined Sanderson and Pickett in the battle for silver. With 750 to go, there's nothing between these three. Both Pickett and Tipney start to throw in some big strokes, hitting 1:37. The pace starts to tell on Sanderson who drops out of the race. Pickett and Tipney are locked together now. With 200 to go it's Pickett who falls, while Tipney grows stronger and stronger. Adam Freeman-Pask has meanwhile made a huge surge, and he manages to muscle Pickett aside to take the bronze.
Race 22
Men’s BUSA Hwt
For indoor rowing connoisseurs, this is probably the race of the day. Lining up on the front row are the Oxford and Cambridge squads, going head to head with each for the first time in the run up to the Boat Race. Both Universities boast a strong line up, liberally splattered with Olympians and National squad members. This year, Oxford’s spine is strengthened by a number of North Americans, with their real powerhouse rumoured to be Jason Flickinger from the United States. They also have three Olympians in their ranks in the form of Andy Hodge and Robin Bourne-Taylor, both part of the British eight, and Barney Williams, who was a member of the Canadian coxless four who were so narrowly edged out of gold by Pinsent, Cracknell, Coode and Williams. Cambridge, meanwhile, were represented in Athens by Germans Sebastian Schulte and Bernd Heidicker, who set the World Record for the coxless four in winning the 2002 World Championship, and Luke Walton, who was in the US coxless pair. Every single member of the Cambridge squad has put down a predicted time of sub six minutes, so it’ll be very interesting to see whether they match up to expectations.
The race isn’t just about Oxford and Cambridge, of course, and the front row also features three immensely strong rowers in the form of Rick Egington, Richard Blagrove and Andrew Riach. Both Rick and Richard row for Leander, while Andrew has the advantage of both a 6'10" frame and sizable home support from his fellow University of Birmingham rowers.
Big start from the guys on the front. Jason Flickinger goes off at 1:19s and settles down at a comfortable 32 strokes a minute. He's joined at the front by fellow Oxonians Micheal Blomquist and Peter Reed. Behind these three it's Richard Blagrove who takes fourth spot. After 900 metres the entire field is compressed into one huge pack. It looks like Reed and Flickinger may be at the front. With 700 left these two are locked in step; Andrew Brennan has started a charge from the pack as well and he's half a boat length ahead of Egington who's in fourth. Flickinger now racks up the pace, and he crosses the line at 1:25s; he's going back to Oxford tonight as the BUSA Open Champion, rowing the fastest time of the day so far with 5:54.9. Behind him Pete Reed taks second place with 5:57.3. Rick Egington, meanwhile, puts together a stonking finish to deny Oxford a clean sweep of the medals, finishing a thickish coat of varnish ahead of Brennan.
Races 23-28
Redgrave Team Challenge Heats
These races are all run together in order to try and make up some of the time we've lost over the rest of the day. Consequently, we haven't got a clue what's going on.
Race 29
Women Open Hwt, Women Open Lwt
The fastest start comes from Sam Towers and she's joined at the front by Emily Clarke. Annie Vernon slowly cruises up the field, maintaining a 1:42 split and by 500 metres the race looks hers to lose. Emily Clarke finds herself in a battle for second place with Lindsey Maguire, Natasha Smith and Jo Cook. These four are all pouring everything into it but Clarke has enough left in the tank to take second while Jo Cook, who was in the pack for most of the race, is rewarded for her sprint finish with a bronze.
Race 30
Men Open Lwt
The lightweight men all get away at a canter, with the early running being done by Leander man Matt Beecheley. Behind him there's a gentle slope of rowers, including Paul Holdaway, Peter Allen, Ali Brown and Concept 2's own Alex Skelton, whose race preparation has mainly consisted of running around all day sorting out problems and mopping up sick. After a three minutes it seems that it's Beechley's race, but he's dragging Paul Holdaway along with him and these two are well ahead of the rest of the field. With two hundred metres to go Holdaway tries to make his move, but Beechley drops his pace in response. It's Beechley by a couple of seconds in the end, winning in 6:22.1. Holdaway is second in 6:27.4. Behind him Peter Allen fights off the rest of the front row to take the bronze in 6:31.0.
Race 31
Men Open Hwt
The final individual race of the 2005 British IRC. We're an hour late, our heart rate has been going at a gallop since 7:30, but it's nearly over.
All eyes here are on Graham Benton. Can he become the first ever non-rower to take the Men's Open title? He starts at his usual ludicrous pace. 1:07 off the start? Possibly illegal. It's clear that things aren't going to all go his own way as he's joined at the front by Pete Wells. With 800 metres gone, the two are together at 1:29s, Wells possibly having a micron's lead. 1,000 metres and the lead is up to two microns. Who ever is going to win this race is going to have hurt. 1,200 gone and it looks like Benton now has the microns. He drops the pace ever so slightly from 1:29 to 1:28. Wells looks like he can't live with it and he's drifting back. 500 to go. Can Benton hold on? Whose got the biggest sprint? 300 left and he's still at 1:29. Wells is floating out at 1:32s but starts his sprint with 200 to go. 100 to go and he's still there. It only looks like Benton is going to do it. The crowd are on their feet cheering their favourites on. The line's coming and the championship is over and Graham Benton stands up from his machine as British champion with a time of 5:53.5, before collapsing to the floor, still British champion. Pete Wells, who's rowed a great race, is second with 5:56.6, while Nick Lloyd had a tremendous second half of the race to win the bronze with 5:57.3.
