Crashing Valentines Day with records

Three World Records fell at the CRASH-Bs, the World Indoor Rowing Championships in Boston, USA. The Valentines Day erg regatta lived up to its reputation with athletes from plenty of nations fronting up to go as hard as they could over the 2,000m distance.

A number of current World Record holders were amongst the almost 2,000 competitors that came to take advantage of the unique racing conditions. Held at Boston University’s Agganis Arena, the event is played out on top of an ice hockey rink with extra rubbish bins accommodated for in case of racing over-exuberance.

Exuberantly pulling a personal best (but missing out on the World Record) was German junior Felix Bach. Organiser Linda Muri described the situation: “Bach caused the chain on his machine to form a loop and kink with his violent, front end lifting start. We let him start over again in the following heat.  His coaches prudently held down his erg till his rhythm lengthened out.  Turns out, he finished with a four second PB, 5:51.8. ‘Wicked fast’ as we say here in Boston.”

Lightweight record holder and Crash-B regular, Henrik Stephansen of Denmark held off Hungary’s Tamas Varga to win the lightweight men’s event. Stephansen’s teammate, Steffen Jensen finished in third.

Denmark Olympic Champion and World Record holder of the 30 – 39 lightweight men’s category, Eskild Ebbesen, 37, raced in his age group. Ebbesen’s time of 6:15.8 put him first in his event, but nine seconds off his World Record set in 2004. In second place, retired German World Champion Peter Ording finished in 6:22.9. Ording finished to hear that his first child had just been born.

The lightweight women’s event was won by recently crowned World Record holder, Ursula Grobler. Last month Grobler (USA) set the World Record with a time of 6:54.7. At the Crash-Bs the phenomenal Grobler pulled 6:57.5, well ahead of Greek Olympian and World Champion, Alexandra Tsiavou. Tsiavou finished just a fraction ahead of fellow teammate, Christina Giazitzidou. The times were 7:07.0 and 7:07.5 respectively.

The women’s open event ended with United States collegiate rower, Canada’s Carolyn Ganes taking first. From Vancouver, Ganes's friend gave up Winter Olympic tickets to come to Boston to support Ganes. Ganes’s time of 6:40.4 put her ahead of Russian three-time Olympian Julia Levina. It took Levina four plane flights to get to Boston and was worth a silver medal. Finishing just behind Levina was Pavlina Zizkova of the Czech Republic. After the finish Ganes Tweeted eight humble words, "Is the proud owner of the crash-b hammer."

The men’s open event went Germany’s way with Tim Grohmann winning the coveted ‘hammer’ trophy for finishing in the fastest time. Grohmann’s time of 5:48.7 was two seconds faster than second placed Allar Raja of Estonia. American university rower Brad Bertolds was third. Raja stated afterwards that last year he won bronze, this year silver, so he was due to win gold in 2011.

Racing went through age groups including Robert Spenger (USA) racing against himself in the 85 – 89 year old lightweight men's category. Spenger is the World Record holder in this category and broke his own record by finishing in 8:13.6. Two other records were broken. Laurette Rindlaub (USA) won the 75 - 79 year old lightweight women's category and set the record at 9:08.9. Denmark's Ingrid Peterson added another World Record to her list by finishing the 65 - 69 year old lightweight women's category in 7:56.9.

Muri, who found time to race in between helping keep the show rolling, said the ever-growing adaptive categories caught her interest. “The participation from Paralympians to first-time racers was particularly meaningful and resulted in a successful adaptive championship based on feedback I've had from the competitors and coaches.” Fellow organiser, Kirk Bargerhuff added that the Crash-b board of directors assembled a diverse advisory group to provide insight and advice on the best way to involve adaptive events in the racing schedule. "It was a great success," Bargerhuff said afterwards.

Adaptive organisation was headed by George Cuddy who commented, "Despite all of our concerns about safety and preparedness during the planning sessions for the adaptive programme, we failed to accurately predict the positive emotional impact that working with 39 remarkable athletes would have upon the other competitors, spectators and all of our volunteers. We cannot wait to support more adaptive athletes in the coming years."

Cuddy added, "The success of this year's programme at the Crash-bs is going to be a catalyst for the entire adaptive athlete community because it proved that a team of concerned individuals working in concert can create a safe and enjoyable event that delivers to every need of each athlete regardless of the mental and/or physical challenges involved."

Raced over 1,000m Paralympian Ron Harvey (USA) easily won the men’s arms-shoulders adaptive category. Harvey finished in 4:11.2. The women’s arms-shoulder event was also won by American Paralympian Laura Schwanger.

Full results can be found here: http://www.crash-b.org/web/results/results-2010/