2011 World Rowing Masters Regatta Results

Last Sunday, 11 September, the World Rowing Masters Regatta ended in Poznan, Poland. Here is what FISA posted on their website, slightly edited (link to all the results at the bottom of this entry):

After 400 races, the 2011 World Rowing Masters Regatta is completed. Masters rowers, those 27 years and over and out of international competition, spent four days racing on the Malta regatta course in Poznan, Poland. The rowers came from 37 countries and went up in age from the youngest category, ‘A’, right through to ‘J’-category which included the oldest man who is 92-years young, and the oldest woman who is 89-years young.

To get through this hefty number of races, officials started a new race every third minute and with some rowers taking over five minutes to complete the 1,000-metre course, a lot of tolerance and juggling had to come into play. In the ‘I’ men’s single, 81-year-old Stanislaw Soldatov of Russia’s Dymano Moscow club, took 5:32.52 to finish the course. Soldatov’s race was won by Germany’s Karl Trager, 78, of the German Ruderclub Rossleben. Trager’s time was 4:34.34.

At the other end of the scale, Lars Bo Andersen of Sorø Rowing Club, Denmark, took 3:36.95 to cover the 1,000-metre race in the ‘B’ category single. Andersen is 45-years-old. This was just one of the events Andersen raced in as he, like many of the competitors, choose to race in a number of races. Former Olympian, Pauline Bird, 54, of Great Britain, raced in six events, including a number of different age categories as it is possible to row ‘down’ in a younger age category.

As the racing format does not include semifinals or finals, each event has a number of heats with the winner of each heat receiving a medal. The handing out of medals is thus a full-time job for the organising committee.

On the final day, Sunday, competitors joined together in mixed gender boats for 150 races.

For complete results, please click here.

(Photograph from FISA's Worldrowing.com)