2003 Concept2 Euro Open Report
Paris in the rain. City of glittering lights, romance and the first ever Concept 2 European Open. With 1,800 competitors representing over 20 different countries, the 14th of December marked another big step forward for the sport of indoor rowing.
The Women's Open Lwt came down to a head to head between the eternally youthful Lisa Schlenker of the United States and Juliane Elander of Denmark. The two were a study in contrasting styles. While Elander rowed like a classic Danish lightweight, starting off at a rate of nearly 50 strokes a minute and settling at quite a high rate, Schlenker, even at the start, rowed a much longer, slower stroke, but generating a phenomenal amount of power. After five hundred metres Schlenker had settled into a half a boat lead and, keeping that long, strong powerful stroke going, she never really looked threatened, gradually spinning her lead out until she crossed the line first in 7:03.8.
The Men's Open Lwt had a very strong Danish presence, with all four members of their lightweight coxless four present. The heavy favourite was world record holder and former world champion Eskild Ebbesen. In a race that he bossed from start to finish, Ebbesen showed all his old form from the start, exploding out the gates at nearly 60 strokes a minute, settling into a 1:33/1:34 race pace before finishing equally explosively, coming home in 1:29s and 1:28s. His time of 6:07.1 not only afforded him a victory by a couple of boat lengths over his country Mads Andersen (6:15.2.) but it also gave him a new world record for the Men's 30-39 Lwt category as well. Behind the two Danes, Pascal Touron and Xavier Dorfman tied each other on the line for the bronze medal in 6:16.5.
The Women's Open Hwt was a clash of the Americans, with Sarah Cox lining up alongside Michele Guerette, her teammate in the Eight. At the end, Michele got the better start, taking an early lead. By the five hundred metre stage, they had both settled into a 1:40 pace with Michele's better start providing her with the advantage. They matched each stroke for stroke through the next five hundred, each hitting bang on 1:40 every time. The question was which one of them was going to crack first or, alternatively, who could find the big finish. At 1,400 metres, Alison decided to try and stamp her mark on proceedings, eating away at the lead until they both absolutely level. With 500 metres left, Michele kept on glancing over at her rival's monitor, obviously sensing the challenge and, with 300 to go, Alison takes the lead for the first time in the race. Michele at this stage has her eyes closed and it looks for all the world that Alison is now going to row away with the race. With 150 metres to go, however, and with her eyes still closed and still looking in a world of pain, Michele somehow manages to come back, suddenly dropping her pace significantly. As the line approaches, it's Alison who's looking over nervously as Michele starts to really fly, incredibly knocking out 1:30s. With less than a couple of seconds to go Michele retakes the lead to become the inaugural European Women's Open champion in a time of 6:35.4. Behind her finished Alison in 6:36.6 while Stephanie Dechand of France was third with 7:05.0. Congratulations to the UK's Claire Cordory as well who, despite complainign beforehand that she felt small compared to the other competitors did excellently to finish sixth in a time of 7:09.6.
The Men's Open Hwt was won by another American, this time in the shape of Jamie Schroeder, but he had a far easier ride of things. Using every inch of his 6'8" frame, he burst off at 1:18s and it was obvious from the start that he was going to win the race by a country mile. Settling into a race pace of 1:26, the big question was whether he was going to beat his own PB of 5:45. With a final sprint burst taking him back down to 1:23s, he set a new championship record and Personal Best of 5:43.9. Behind him, Francois Genix-Chausse did well to hold off Jaan Laos to take silver in 6:04.2.
The very first race of the day was one of the most impressive as it saw one of the longest standing world records fall to the United State's Paul Hendershot. Making his debut in the 60-69 Hwt category, Paul took apart Noel Frost's old mark of 6:31.4 to win in the blazingly fast time of 6:27.9, over thirty seconds faster than second place and forty seconds quicker than the competition record.
Other equally dominant races were rowed by the UK's Tracy Axten and Anna Bailey in the Women's 40-49 Hwt and 50-59 Hwt races respectively. Tracy's time of 6:59.6 was well inside the old championship record and she was way ahead of the Czech Republic's Jitka Svatosova, who took silver in 7:45.9, and Italy's Virtu Jolanda, third in 7:51.8. Anna, racing in Union Jack socks, won in a time of 7:11.6, with the UK's Karon Philips an easy silver in 7:29.7.
Another UK gold was won by Rosemary Armstrong, in the Women's 60-69 Lwt, who was involved in a fantastic race with Luanne Mills of the United States; Rosemary just did enough to hold off Luanne with a time of 8:17.4 against 8:22.8, setting another championship record in the process. In the Women's 60-69 Hwt, Georgina Hamilton took over 5 seconds off her Personal Best to win bronze with 8:23.0
An even better race was in the Men's 60-69 Lwt, between Leed's Philip Stubley and Peter Skov of Denmark. The two men were on adjacent machines and were virtually neck and neck all the way, with Philip just showing a slight advantage over Peter. As both men sprinted across the line Philip emerged the winner by less than a second, winning in 7:07.0 with Peter just behind in 7:07.9. Andrew Johnson meanwhile made it a bronze medal for the UK in that race as well, taking third in 7:28.6.
In the Men's 50-59 Lwt event, Rich Cureton of the United States continued his domination of the division. His time of 6:32.4 was over four seconds slower than the 6:28.0 world record he set in Birmingham but was still good enough to add the European title to the World and British ones he already holds. Behind him there was a phenomenal battle for second place between the UK's Peter English and Taisto Ylonen of Finland. With both men pouring everything into the last two hundred metres, when the dust was settled it turned out to be the first dead heat of the day as both men came out with 6:44.8s.
The Men's 50-59 Hwt saw Norway's Tore Foss come away with gold in a time of 6:18.4. Behind him, although, there was a fantastic battle for second place between Tom Hinsby and Paul Langguth, both of the UK. The two were jockeying for position all the way and Paul really gave it everything in order to try and match Tom and take the silver; with two hundred metres to go the effort proved to be just too much, and he blew up to come home fifth with 6:47.2. It was, however, a valiant attempt and one that earned the respect of the crowd. Tom came away with silver in a time of 6:34.7.
Another race that got everybody in the arena on their feet was the Men's 40-49 Lwt battle between world record holder Michael Caviston, from the United States, and Neil Staite from the UK. Neil got off to a poor start and was always behind the world record holder. He kept on pushing, however, and never allowed Caviston to slack off. With two hundred metres to go, Neil was about twenty metres behind and threw everything into his finish. Going a lot faster than his rival, the line unfortunately came a little bit too soon for him, and he finished in 6:24.8, just behind the American's 6:23.9.
The UK's final two golds came in the 30-39 age category. In the Men's 30-39 Lwt race, Lee Rankin rowed a superbly paced race to win in 6:23.9, comfortably ahead of Denmark's Anders Brabaek who took silver with 6:27.9. In the Women's 30-39 Hwt race Annabel Montalto outclassed the rest of the field to win in 7:19.2, Petra Schouten finishing nearly ten seconds behind her in 7:27.9.
One of the best races of the day for indoor rowing connoisseurs was the Men's 40-49 Hwt race, which saw all the big guns in that event in the place for the first time. Lining up alongside the UK's John Dixon was Jurgen Schwab of Germany, who John pipped to gold at the last World IRC; former world champion Michael Connors of the United States and Antti Niskanen of Finland, the current British IRC. Despite the quality of the field, Niskanen rowed an astonishing race to blow everybody else away, winning in a time of 6:03.8 and leading from start to finish. Behind him, Connors just found enough to hold off Schwab, really having to dig deep in the last 500 metres to take second in 6:11.4. Schwab came third in 6:12.9, while John Dixon was a close fourth in 6:14.4.
The inaugural European Open was, on every level a great success. The Stade de Coubertin is an excellent venue for the championship, being pretty much the perfect size for the event, and two big screens allowing you to keep up to speed with the racing no matter where you were sat. It was great to see so many different nationalities competing, especially the large contingent from America who helped create an excellent atmosphere for the race with their highly visible red tops and loud vocal support. With any luck, next year's championship, wherever it takes place, will be able to build on Paris and help fix the event firmly in place.
