Australian Indoor Championships

[[old] Dr. Z]

Big congratulations to John Harvey on winning a trip to the CRASH-B's at the Australian Indoor Championships. What a comeback & an inspiration!<br><br>The website promises full results Tuesday, but have the Boston trip winners<br><a href='http://www.concept2.com.au/products/Eve ... s_2004.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.concept2.com.au/products/Eve ... atulations to all & keep erging.MP

[[old] dennish]

Damn this is the great feel good story in a long while. For those of you who don't know John Harvey, he finished third at Boston two years ago. Then had a some very serious health issues, and surgery and was able to barely walk for weeks. He would never let on how difficult it was but continually said he was going to make the effort to qualify this year. Last year I wore my rowing Australia t-shirt all day at Boston so he would know that he was remembered. At his last test just a couple weeks before the Aussie champs he pulled a 7:05 and spent hours recovering from the exertion. Where he lives in Bali he can not access the forum so he could share, but he has the most unusual training but clearly it worked for him, 6:45 and he needed a 6:49 (50 lwts). Hes been on my short list of world class guys for two years but this is just the best I've felt since Mike Wherley and Floyd Landis. Roland did you get see him race and/or chat with him? to Mike and Rick, damn there must be something to that, on the wall stuff and all the VR brain work. Congrats John and we'll hopefully do as well as you when our chance comes and we can renew old friendships in Boston. dennis

[[old] Gibbon]

I was at the Australian championships, had a great day at a well-organised event. I did the 500m and the 2000m (men 30 – 39 light). Pleased with the 500, did a PB of 1:30.6 and won a gold medal, no surprise about the medal, I was the only entry in my category. <br><br>In the 2000m I was actually racing someone and it turned out we were very evenly matched, it was close all the way and I ended up with a time of 6:45 (I think) getting beaten by 0.1 seconds. I’m looking forward to seeing the stroke data for this as I rowed a poor race, slowing up around the 1400m mark then sprinting like a lunatic to make up for my moment of mental weakness.<br><br>I saw John Harvey warming up, he appeared very focussed. I guess he needed to be because I think as well a doing the 2k he also did the 1k, and possibly the 500m as well, before. I also had a brief chat to Roland Baltutis, who I think won his race. Unfortunately there weren’t that many competitors in the over 30 age category, so few in fact that there were enough ergs for every male over 30 to race at the same time. So I ended up missing some of the races I was keen to watch as I was racing at the same time in a different category.<br><br>The racing was done on model Ds with PM3s, a big improvement over the PM2s IMHO. The display shows your name and position, and the name and the distance between the people in front of you and behind you all at the same time - rather than scrolling through the information like the PM2 did. The starts also seemed much cleaner as well – no delay between 1 and ROW, I didn’t see a single false start all day.<br><br>In conclusion a good day of indoor racing, the bulk of which was done in the Junior categories, a number of Melbourne schools had lots of entries. Given the number of rowing clubs in and around Melbourne I’m always a little bit surprised (maybe not that surprised given that most rowers seem to consider the erg the tool of the devil) that more people don’t turn up to race in the senior events. Makes it easy for me to win medals though. <br><br>Nick<br>

[[old] Roland Baltutis]

<!--QuoteBegin-dennish+Oct 18 2004, 04:01 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'><span class='genmed'><b>QUOTE</b></span> (dennish @ Oct 18 2004, 04:01 PM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Damn this is the great feel good story in a long while.   For those of you who don't know John Harvey, he finished third at Boston two years ago. Then had a some very serious health issues, and surgery and was able to barely walk for weeks. ............. Roland did you get see him race and/or chat with him? to Mike and Rick, damn there must be something to that, on the wall stuff    dennis<!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><br>Dennis,<br> I had a brief chat with John Harvey before the race. He looked very fit and healthy considering what he'd been through. He wasn't very talkative though as he was trying to focus on the race. He sent me an email the other day to apologise and show that he really is a genuinely nice bloke. Apparently, because it's so hot and humid in Bali where he lives, he does his erging inside a climatic chamber at his gym.<br><br>My 6.17 result reflects my lack of solid erging before the event. I made a decision in the middle of winter to spend more time cross country ski racing than erging. The reason being Australia just had it's best snow season in decades and I wanted to make the most of it. I didn't want to miss that opportunity and figured the 6.08 time required to qualify for the Crash B's (bronze medal winning time in last Crash Bs for 40-49 age group) was a big ask for a middle weight 88kg bloke like me. I'm looking forward to some on water racing and RowPro internet racing instead.<br><br>Just for the record. The Aussies that qualified for the Crash B's were:<br><br>Jeff Sykes 60-69 Lwt race time 7:12.3 (Crash B qualifying time required 7:16.9). John Harvey 50-59 Lwt. Race time 6:45.4 (Qualifying time 6:49.5). Robyn Huttenmeister 40-49 Lwt. Race time 7:29.8 (7:32.8 required) and Robyn Selby-Smith Open Hwt class. Race time 6:52.7 (6:53.6 required).<br><br>Keep it smooth, keep it relaxed<br>Roland Baltutis<br>