INDOOR ROWING NEWSLETTER #114 ====================== 26-November-2004 ======================= _________________________________________________ C O N T E N T S 1. AXA PPP healthcare British Indoor Rowing Championship 2. Tel's Tales **************************** Feedback Back Issues Subscription Information ________________________________________________________________ With Bells On ***************** For a glitzier, HTML version of our newsletter with pictures, cartoons and all the funny jokes (possibly), go to: http://www.concept2.co.uk/email/newsletter.htm. To receive the newsletter in HTML format, send an email to subscription@concept2.co.uk with HTML as the subject title. How To Write To Us ***************** Please don't reply directly to this email, 'cos we won't ever see it. Instead send your bouquets or brickbats to editor@concept2.co.uk. ========================================================= AXA PPP healthcare British Indoor Rowing Championship ========================================================= The 2004 AXA PPP healthcare British Indoor Rowing Championship was, we reckon, a pretty fine day all round. After a Saturday of intensive testing, we finally decided to go with the new wireless race system. Despite a couple of hiccups that made the day gradually slip an hour behind schedule, overall the system performed well, and despite a couple of downsides, we reckon the overall gain was worth it. Hopefully by the time we return next year, we should have wrinkled out any remaining problems. Over 2,250 individuals raced during the course of the day, making this the biggest championship yet. The day also seemed to prove popular with spectators too this year, with an informal survey (i.e. what it looked like to us when we were stood there) showing more people coming along than ever before to support the athletes. The Junior categories were in evidence in the greatest numbers yet, thanks in part to a new initiative headed by the Steve Redgrave Trust that has put rowing machines into inner city schools in Birmingham. The large quantity of youngsters from 11 upwards who have been training on rowing machines at schools where the sport had never reached before swelled the ranks of the junior events and ensured there were plenty of opportunities for observers like chief GB coach Jurgen Grobler to talent sport for 2012 and beyond. One of the most anticipated races of the day came in the Men's BUSA Hwt when Oxford and Cambridge went head to head in a precursor of the Boat Race. With the ITV cameras filming as part of a documentary on the run up to that, Oxford established a dominant stranglehold on the top places. With Jason Flickinger winning the race in 5:54.9, they finished with five rowers in the top six, with Leander's Rick Egington's bronze the only thing spoiling a clean sweep that saw Cambridge's best only 7th. Cambridge filled many of the places between 10th and 20th but in the power stakes, at least, Oxford clearly have the edge. If we were an eccentrically dressed tipster with a line in deerstalkers and odd hand movements, we know whom we'd be telling you to get your money on. The most inspiring moment of the day came in Race 29, when Robin Gibbons and Sol Solomu raced. Robin and Sol are both paraplegic but, with the aid of groundbreaking work from a Brunel university team led by Professor Brian Andrews, they are able to row by means of an advanced technology called FES (Functional Electrical Stimulation). Although they've only been rowing for a short period, both men have become big indoor rowing converts. The unanimous applause they received as they came home was the biggest of the day, and Professor Andrews was adamant that everyone involved would be back for more next year. One of the big stories of the day was whether or not Graham Benton could become the first non- rower to go as Men's Open Hwt champion. Lined up against him were some big hitters, including several national squad members. Although Graham had his usual ridiculously quick start, it was soon obvious that he wasn't going to have everything his own way, and he was soon joined at the front by Pete Wells, who at the halfway stage held the slightest of leads. With a clear game plan in mind, (if you want to check out consistency, have a look at his stroke graph), Graham was soon able to nudge his way to the front, and once he'd got a couple of metres ahead, there was no way he was going to be denied. So it was that a little bit of history was made. At a championship where nearly two-thirds of the competitors came from a non-rowing background, it seemed only fitting that the day should end on such a note. For more on the day's racing, you can find our running commentary at http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/reports_2004.php. Race Results and Analysis ************************************** Full results for the championship can be found at http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/results.php. As everybody was on the race system this year, we're pretty confident that everything up there's accurate. We'll be producing a PDF of the results next week, so if you've not already checked out the website, make sure you do so and let us know on birc@concept2.co.uk if you find any errors or oversights. Again, because of the new race system, we've got splits and stroke data for everyone. If you go to the results and click on "Race Analysis" next to a name, you can see the split data for that person, as well as a stroke graph. You can also find the links to the split and stroke data for that race. For those of you who have RowPro (http://www.digitalrowing.com), we'll shortly be adding the capacity to download the RowPro File for everybody involved, which means that you can race against the likes of Graham Benton and Debbie Flood in the safety and privacy of your own home. Results Summary: http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/results_2004_summary.php Top 50s: http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/results_2004_top50.php Race Replays ************************************** Now you can watch yourself blow up in the last two hundred metres time and time again! Race replays are now up at http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/replays.php. Unfortunately, we haven't got replays for the junior races, but everybody else's race is now up on-line. British IRC Hall Of Fame ************************************** Congratulations to Noel Frost and Sean Morris, who take their place alongside the likes of Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent in the British IRC Hall of Fame. The pair emerged victorious from a close run public vote for the last two places to join the eight other competitors in the initial Hall of Fame. With nine British titles between them, the two are worthy entrants. For more on the Hall of Fame, and pen portraits of all ten members, visit: http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/fame.php Redgrave Team Challenge ************************************** 2004 saw the debut of the Redgrave Team Challenge, which saw teams of four race over 4,000m, with the top five in each heat going through to a final at the end of the day. The four categories were Men's and Women's Junior 16 and Corporate/Fitness, with the winners of each category all receiving a brand new Indoor Rower. The Men's Corporate/Fitness event was dominated by Wigan's Royce's Gym. Pulling an average split of 1:30.7, they covered the distance in a time of 3:01.3, well ahead of the rest of the field. The Men's Junior 16 race also saw a relatively easy victory, this time for Hammersmith's Latymer School. In the Women's events, however, things were much closer. RMA Sandhurst emerged victorious in the Corporate/Fitness event in a time of 3:48.3, just ahead of a team from David Lloyd Leisure Cheshire Oaks. The closest race, however, was reserved for the Women's Junior J16. In a thrilling race, a team from Sir Steve Redgrave's old alma mater, Great Marlow School, managed to pip Lymm High School to the post by just eight-tenths of a second, 3:54.0 versus 3:54.8. Results for the Redgrave Team Challenge can be found at http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/results_2004_team.php. Questionnaire ************************************** If you've got five minutes to spare, we'd greatly appreciate it if you could spend some time filling in the British IRC questionnaire on the website. We really value all feedback on the race as we're always trying to make the next event better and more than satisfying than the one before. You can find the questionnaire at http://www.concept2.co.uk/birc/news.php?story=questionnaire while you can also send your comments to birc@concept2.co.uk. Photographs ************************************** You can find a selection of photographs from the day at http://www.conncept2.co.uk/birc/photographs.php. What you're probably more interested in is the photographs up at http://www.photodigital.co.uk/vscript/eventindex.asp?S=pd&C=205. Photo Digital were the snappers going up and down on the day and they think they've managed to get photographs of nearly everybody who raced. You can buy copies of all the photographs directly from them at the site. Millennium Cup ************************************** The Millennium Cup was established at the 2000 British IRC by Wallingford's Noel Frost, shortly after he retired from competition. The Cup is awarded to the rower over the age of 50 whose performance at the championship is the best when compared to the existing World Record. This year, the Cup was won by Harrogate's Geoffrey Knight, who took full advantage of stepping up into the 70-74 Lwt class. His winning time of 7:13.9 was only a second and a half outside of Herbert Leah's world record of 7:15.4. Champion of Champions Trophy ************************************** The Champion of Champions trophy is awarded to the Open finalist whose time is the best when compared to the existing championship record. It has been donated by long-term indoor rowing supporters Harry and Jessie Welsh. Over 150 years old, the trophy was made by Jessie's grandfather, a master silversmith from Birmingham. This year's winner is Graham Benton, for his historic victory in the Men's Open Hwt race. ========================================================= Tel's Tales: AXA PPP healthcare British Indoor Rowing Championship ========================================================= "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." This was a comment made to me by one competitor at this year's BIRC. The reference was due to the problems we were experiencing with the new race system, which led to us falling behind in the race schedule. This is a philosophy I am not totally adverse to but, in this particular instance, I think we were right to try the new system. What were the benefits to the competitors who, at the end of the day, are what BIRC is all about? The main benefits were related to the graphics on the monitor. They were bigger and clearer. You could see where you were in a race as the monitor named the person in the lead, the person immediately in front and behind you and by how far, thus replicating what you would see if you were actually racing down a course. Everyone was connected to the race system, which meant for the first time we were able to show on the big screen how people on the back rows were getting on. Competitors were able to immediately recover their split times by pressing the change display button. In the past when only the front rows were connected, the times of competitors on the back rows had to be entered manually which had the potential for error as well as delaying the results. Because everyone was connected to the race system we could give results immediately without error. So these were our motives for the change, but could we have managed it better? With the benefit of hindsight, yes I think we can and you can rest assured we will be going over this for the next couple of weeks to ensure we do. Areas we will be looking at will include the race start, the race schedule and the medal ceremony. We had to change the start procedure and drop the audio "ROW". The reason for this was that the race system can only support 40 machines and so, with 120 machines in the hall, there were three separate race systems running. The time between "Attention" and "ROW" was random on each system so we could not synchronise the "ROW" to appear on all 120 machines. We thought this would lead to lots of false starts so we decided to start each system separately starting from the back. There were very few actual false starts, no more than usual, so this worked but the problem for competitors was they were unaware of this process until they turned up on the day. The explanation for this was we did not decide to go with the new system until the end of exhaustive testing, which finished late Saturday night. One advantage of the three separate race systems was that we could switch across from one to the other to keep abreast of how people were progressing, a facility we did not manage very well on the day. The reason we fell behind was that between races the system does a diagnostic check on all machines including checking the condition of the batteries. Obviously this takes considerably longer on 120 machines. Some competitors in some races were taking over 10 minutes to run so with the change over and diagnostic checks perhaps a race schedule of 15 minutes was overly optimistic. The constraints of running such a big event on one day are that there is a limit on how early you can start and how late you can finish. This almost predetermines the time between races. The area that always gets squeezed is the medal ceremony. No one is more aware than us of the importance of receiving your medals both for the recipients and their families. We had to move this out of the main arena this year but because races were running behind schedule it caused big problems for the ceremonies. I want to thank all who supported BIRC this year for your patience and understanding on the day and welcome any comments on how you think we can do better. But that's not to say there were not some great things going on. Where else would you see competitors from age 10 to 94, Olympic medallists and paraplegics all competing in the same arena on the same day? In all, over 2250 competitors took part and got their results, which made this the biggest indoor rowing race ever. ____________________________________________________FEEDBACK You like? You dislike? You want to write something for the newsletter? Want to mock us on making a basic error? Make sure to tell us at editor@concept2.co.uk. 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