2002 World IRC Report
Resplendent in their team kit, the PPP healthcare sponsored British team more than punched their weight at this year's championship. With 83 team members, out of a total entry of 1,800, they managed to nip in and steal away with 30% of the total medals awarded, making the Great Train Robbery look like a shake-up for dinner money. Not only that, but three members of the British team were involved in what we reckon will still be the greatest race ever hundreds of years into the future, when we're onto the Model R and competing inside a low-gravity asteroid orbiting Jupiter.
In the Women's J18 races, Lucy Clarke and Crystal MacLeod were flying the Union Jack in the lightweight and heavyweight events respectively. The heavyweight race was won by Denmark's Fie Udby who, at 16 and capable of 7:08.2, promises to be a great prospect for the future. Crystal finished in sixth place with 7:18.1, an excellent performance bearing in mind she wasn't 100% fit going into the race. Lucy Clarke had an excellent race in the Lightweights, taking one and a half seconds off her British IRC time, to win bronze with 7:41.8.
The Men's Junior 18 Heavyweight was also won by a 16 year old in the shape of the giant German Karsten Brodowski who according to many judges will be a big name in the sport for years to come. His time of 6:01.1 sealed his victory by a couple of seconds, with Sam Cates of the US second in 6:05.1, and Czech Republic's Miroslav Holecek the bronze medallist in 6:07.1. The J18 Lightweight was a clean sweep for the US with Jonah Todd-Geddes the winner in 6:23.4.
In the Men's 40-49 Hwt race, Britain's hopes were pinned to the over-sized chest of John Dixon. In only his fourth ever indoor race, John broke his own British record with a time of 6:03.8, which wasn't quite enough to defeat last year's winner Michael Connors of the US, who pipped him to the post with 6:02.5. An almost identical story took place in the 40-49 Lwt, where Graham Price also broke his own British record, this time in 6:21.8, but was also forced to settle for second place, although the winner, US's Michael Caviston, had to break the world record with a 6:18.2 in order to do so. When Graham won the British IRC back in 1999, he pulled a 6:36.2, meaning he's taken an astonishing 15 seconds off since turning 40.
For Anna Bailey in the Women's 50-59 Hwt, it was just another day at the office. Ever since her bronze medal here last year, she's gone on to dominate the event, breaking the world record three times this year. With a time of 7:14.9 she set a new championship record and finished nearly thirty seconds ahead of second place, Britain's Karon Phillips, a regular at indoor races throughout Europe and the first time she's medalled at the world champs.
Former British Lion Roger Uttley was involved in a thrilling race in the Men's 50-59 Hwt event. The race was won by Norway's Tore Foss, who after years of toiling manfully in the 40-49 category for silver and bronzes, finally got to move up to the higher age band. After a slowish start, Tore pulled away from the field after a 1,000 metres to come home well ahead in 6:12.9. Behind him, however, was a real race for silver and bronze, with just a handful of seconds covering second down to fifth, Roger's 6:25.8 just pushing him outside the medals.
The Men's 60-69 races saw Britain take both the heavyweight and lightweight titles. In the 60-69 Lwt, Philip Stubley won cool as a cucumber in 7:01.1, a good ten seconds ahead of silver. Equally convincing was former Olympic rower Arnold Cooke, who thrashed the heavyweight race with a 6:45.4. In the Men's 70-79 Lwt, there was a British gold and silver as Herbert Leah and Lionel Everington reached the line in 7:30.2 and 7:36.2 respectively. Ross Abley, in his first world championship, won bronze in the 80-89 Lightweight with 9:06.1.
After a couple of years of having to be satisfied with silver in the 70-79 Lwt event, Reading's Mavis Surridge finally snaffled herself a gold, setting a new personal best in the process of 9:16.8. In the 70-79 Hwt, Paddy Rouse bagged her second ever gold with a 9:12.7. Shelagh Allen, meanwhile, was silver medallist in the 60-69 Hwt event, just outside her own personal best.
One of the biggest stories of the day was the Men's 90-99, where Britain's John Hodgson was competing. Something of a cult figure in the sport over there, John attracted the biggest media scrum of the first half of the day after his race, which he won in a new British and World record time of 9:25.8. John raced a real rower's race, setting an even pace at the start and gradually winding it up.
Where Britain turned out to be the real dudes was in the Masters (30-39) events. Out of the 12 possible medals, Britain won an incredible 9. First off, in the Women's 30-39 Hwt, Jane Fisher took seven seconds off the time she did at the 2000 World IRC, and in the process improved her medal from silver to gold. Under the World IRC rules, lightweights can also score in the heavyweight event, so the silver and bronze heavyweight medals were picked up by the Lightweight gold and silver medallists Naomi Ashcroft and Michelle Parsons, who did 7:15.4 and 7:25.0 respectively.
For the 30-39 Lightweight Men, Steve Miles was involved in a ding-dong with last year's champion, Fabio Calvelli from Italy. Fabio, the winner by a long way of most innovative facial hair, was involved in a serious motorcycle crash six months ago and used the rowing machine to get himself back to full fitness. After a strong surge at the start, Steve pulled away from Fabio to win in a time of 6:20.1.
The real battle, however, was in the Men's 30-39 Heavyweight. Not only was it by far and away the best race of the day, but chances are it was the best race you'll ever see in your life. The seeds of the race lay in last November's British championship, when Chris Rushton, Nik Fleming and Tony Larkman all finished sub six minutes in the Men's 30-34. At the time, Terry O'Neill's commentary described the race as a war of attrition, as no quarter was given and all three rowed as if their very lives depended on it. All three travelled to Boston and, while everybody was hoping for a repeat performance, what we got was beyond belief.
Rushton went off the fastest and got about half a length over Fleming and Larkman at the 500 metre stage. He held this lead over Fleming through the middle with Larkman just dropping off the sub-six minute pace down in third. With 500 metres to go, Chris had worked out an eight metre lead from Nik, and looked strong. With 250 metres to go, Tony started to charge and his splits came down to 1:28 but it looked as though he had left it too late. Chris was starting to feel the heat as he struggled to hold onto his lead over Fleming, and his lead had been slowly nibbled down. With 100 metres left, it was Nik who looked the favourite to take gold but Tony was still charging and Chris just would not yield.
At this point, the sound from the British crowd was awesome, with everybody starting to beat the floor, and all eyes in the arena were fixed upon the big screen. As the three little yellow boats drew up, nobody knew who was going to claim the prize, right up until the moment they all hit the line at the same time in 5.57.6, a three-way tie for first place. The stadium was in chaos as the crowd realised what had happened.
Perhaps the most significant aspect was the rower who trailed in just two tenths of a second behind in fourth place. This was none other than Tom Bohrer, a World and Olympic medallist and one of the greatest American oarsman of all time, who had to be content to play second fiddle for once. Later on that night Royce Banks, assistant team manager in charge of security and the man who originally discovered Chris Rushton, still couldn't quite believe it. "It was a fantastic race, and I'm proud, really proud of everyone."
The Men's Open final was dominated by the US, with the only non-American being the Czech Republic's Vaclav Chalupa. Chalupa is arguably the most experienced single sculler in the world, having been a consistent presence at the Olympic Games and World championships for the past fifteen years. In that time, however, he's always been the bridesmaid and never the bride, only clocking up silvers and bronzes.
Would this be any different? The fastest qualifier by far was Chris Grothkopp of Princeton, with an impressive 5:49.4.
From the start Chalupa went off at 1:26 pace, before settling into a relaxed 1:28. Taking an early lead was Jamie Schroeder from Stanford University.
Something of an unknown quantity coming into the race, at 500 metres it suddenly became obvious that the 6'7" Schroeder was taking the final by the scruff of the neck. Hammering out consistent and impressive 1:25s, at the 1,000 metre mark he was a full 27 metres ahead of Chalupa, who in turn was just ahead of Eric Mueller of Princeton. At 600 metres, Chalupa was on about 1:28 while Schroeder was on 1:27. Mueller briefly nudged in front of Chalupa before suddenly the big Czech showed his class. With 200 metres to go, he started to eat up the metres on Schroeder, who after his big start was flagging. Chalupa was really flying at the end, but unfortunately the line came a little bit to quickly for him and it was yet another silver for the trophy cabinet in 5.52.6. In the end, Schroeder won in 5:50.3 and Eric Mueller took bronze in 5:53.2.
The result was a remarkable achievement for Schroeder, who only took up rowing a year ago to develop his upper body strength. A trained classical singer, he recorded 5:49 in a qualifying regatta, but his University's rules prevented him from taking up the sponsorship offered by the World Championship organisers and he was forced to pay his own way to the event. With the US Heavyweight Team Coach in attendance, the race could well prove to be a major first step on the road to success.
The British interest in the Men's Open Lightweight lay in the shape of Mark Hunter and Nick English. The pre-race betting, however, mostly centred around last year's winner Leonardo Pettinari of Italy who, so the rumour went, had the world record of 6:03.2 in his sights.
Pettinari had qualified for the final in the fastest time with a 6:10.7. The second fastest time was by Elia Luini, his partner in the world champion double scull, and it was clear then these two were going to be hard to shift. Also present were the two men who finished runners up to Pettinari last year, Steve Warner and Gabe Winkler of the US National Team.
From the start, Pettinari and Luini got off quick; rowing almost in unison, they got their stroke rate up to 45 a minute, a good couple of pips quicker than anybody else in the race. Luini perhaps had half a metre, but never more than that. Both Nick and Mark got off well, as did Conal Bloom of the US, who matched Pettinari's rhythm and tried to sit there. At the half way stage, both Italians were lying outside World Record pace, but seemed in control. Both rowed incredibly long, relaxed strokes and Pettinari in particular seemed untroubled. At 1,100 metres the indoor world champion struck, raising the stroke race a notch from the 38 s.p.m. he had been hitting. Almost before the rest of the field had chance to respond, he hit again at the 1,200 metre mark and had opened up clear blue water on Luini for the first time. From then on it became a battle for silver and bronze. Both Winkler and Warner looked good and with three hundred metres to go, everyone in the field was pulling out all the stops.
As the line came, Pettinari took his second world championship in a time of 6:05.0, the second fastest lightweight time in the world ever. Just behind him was his fellow Italian in 6:06.5 while Warner finished third in 6:07.1. Mark and Nick finished seventh and eighth respectively in 6:15.7 and 6:16.4, both excellent times bearing in mind it was their first ever attempt at the gruelling rigours of having to do two 2,000 metre races in the space of a couple of hours.
The Women's Open race saw a rerun of the British IRC battle between Holland's Hurnet Dekkers and New Zealand's Georgina Evers-Swindell. New Zealand Team Manager Gary Reid was in typically confident mood before the race, citing Georgina's relatively relaxed qualifying effort (6:52.6 versus Dekker's 6:45.0) as key. Most commentators in the arena beforehand, however, gave current world record holder Dekkers the edge.
Both women started off relatively even, going at 1:38 pace. At 300 metres, Georgina was at 1:38.7 while Hurnet was a couple of metres behind in 1:39.7. At 700 metres the two girls were back to neck and neck. At Birmingham, Dekker's tactic was to go off relatively relaxed for a 1,000 metres and then really push the last 1,000, and she played the same game here, going past Georgina at 900 metres. Last year's silver medallist Irja Ven, from Belgium, was in third place at this stage and at 1,100 metres both Georgina and Irja were at 1:40. New Zealand's Rob Waddell used to just churn out 1:24s, and Dekker's grinding pace seemed to be from the same school, with strokes at 1:38 after 1:38.
By 1,200 metres, Hurnet had a five-metre lead and, like Birmingham, the title seemed inexorably hers as she moved slowly away with every stroke. Suddenly, Georgina's monitor, which had dropped slightly to 1:40, seemed to glitch and went to 1:32. It soon became clear, however, that she was starting her drive, and at three hundred metres she was down to 1:36, while Dekker's huge effort was starting to crumble under the pressure, slipping to 1:40s. With 200 to go, the New Zealander was down to an awesome 1:31 pace and level with Hurnet who, as Georgina drew level, blew up, falling down to 1:47 and then 1:52 in the final 50 metres. Nothing could stop Georgina now, and she romped home in 1:30 splits, finishing in 6:30.8, two tenths of a second outside Dekkers' world record. Dekkers crossed the line in 6:37.3, still easily ahead of Ali Cox of the United States, who took bronze in 6:40.3.
Overall Georgina took eight seconds out of Hurnet over the last 500 metres, a remarkable piece of racing. It seems that when her screen 'glitched', she had decided to take three strong strokes to see how much she had left in her tank. As Gary Reid's shouts of "you beauty" rang around the arena, his prediction that Georgina would become the first woman in the world ever to go under 6:30 suddenly seemed very realistic. With New Zealand team trials in a fortnight, it looks like the women's bar might be lowered again.
The form book was wide open for the Women's Open Lightweight final. Pavlina Krtenova of the Czech Republic was probably the slight favourite, having won bronze last year. After two false starts, which helped to ratchet the tension up to a suitably high level, all ten women got away as a pack, going about 1:47 for the first one hundred. After 200 metres, Svenja Zuerkuhl of Germany had opened up the barest of gaps. Svenja looked very capable with good relaxed shoulders. She stayed in or around the front for most of the next 1,000 metres until with 1,400 metres gone Krtenova made a move for the front. With 500 to go, Krtenova, Zuerkuhl and Gen Meredith of Canada were neck and neck, with Krtenova slowly starting to show her class. With two hundred to go, Ktrenova was out in front, with Zuerkuhl and Meredith neck and neck, Zuerkuhl perhaps a handful of metres ahead. With Rachel Hunter from the United States also finishing strongly, it came down to the question of when the line would come. After a big finish, Krtenova deservedly took the gold in a time of 7:09.1, while with the last couple of strokes, Meredith just pipped the German by a tenth of a second, finishing in 7:13.5.
