Rowers from all over the world chose to spend their Valentine’s Day at the 2010 C.R.A.S.H.-B World Indoor Rowing Championships in Boston on Sunday. The event, which began in 1980 with a group of Boston local national team members who were bored with their winter training, opened their doors to adaptive rowers for the first time.
The adaptive events ran after lunch, with a short break to set up the ergs. Competitors entered one of four adaptive categories: Leg-Trunk-Arms, Trunk-Arms, Arms-Shoulders and FES (Functional Electrical Stimulation). The racers competed in a 1000-meter race, among them several 2008 Paralympic athletes.
Concept2 sponsored Team Germany to attend the event, and many of the members were seen on the medal stand throughout the day. Judith Sievers set the tone early in the day in the junior women’s event with a time of 7:02.6, beating last year’s winner Molly Hamrick who clocked a 7:08.1.
Sievers was soon followed by teammate Felix Bach, who had equipment malfunction during his start and had to complete his piece along side the junior lightweight women in the following event. Bach, who currently is the Junior World Champion single sculler, finished with a time of 5:51.8, the third fastest time of the day, to win his event.
In the following event, junior lightweight women, Team Germany’s Fabienne Knoke successfully defended her 2009 title with a time of 7:18.5, three seconds faster than her 2009 win. Her teammate, lightweight junior men’s rower Thomas Volmer, fell short of the win, despite his coach’s motivation, which thrilled the crowd as it was in German. Volmer placed third behind Mathias Larsen of Denmark and Ryan Furey who placed first and second respectively.
Entering the master and senior events, Team Germany once again set the tone with Jens Raab winning the masters men open event with a 6:02.8. Raab moved up from placing second last year with a faster time of 6:00.3. His teammate Peter Ording followed with a silver in the masters men lightweight event behind Eskild Balschmidt Ebbesen. Silke Günther, also sporting the German uniform, won the masters women open event and her lightweight counterpart Petra Luecke followed with a win in the masters women lightweight category. Teammate Barbara Jonischkeit also earned a silver medal in the senior women’s lightweight event before the 3:00 PM break for awards.
But that wasn’t the end of the day for the German team. First, Ursula Grobler, the South Africa native who now resides in Seattle, attempted the 30-39 lightweight women’s world record. Two weeks prior, Grobler set the world record for lightweight women, ages 19-29, but after turning 30 before C.R.A.S.H.-Bs she decided to go for a second record. Though Grobler easily won the event on Sunday, she missed the record but just under a second.
The day finished like it started, with Concept2 Team Germany winning one more event. Tim Grohmann won the open men’s event with a time of 5:48.7, the fastest time of the day.
The 2010 C.R.A.S.H.-B World Championship results.
By Liz Bernal
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