WRICH

[Cyclist2]

Just got the notification about this weekend's races in Canada from C2. Thought I would post some observations, looking over the WRICH website. I'll be watching the live stream for a lot of the races and surely the Versa Challenge. Here is the link: https://worldrowing.com/event/2023-worl ... mpionships.

YankeeRunner is the sole USA entrant in the 70+ LW 2000m race. Go Rick! Not doing the 500m the next day(?) Alain Mangin has withdrawn from both of those races. Would have been nice to see him - he's been around a long time and always strong.

See only a couple other names I recognize (and one that is not to be mentioned). If I missed anyone I should be watching, post them and I'll cheer from here.

The Versa Challenge #1 details are posted (https://worldrowing.com/wp-content/uplo ... iption.pdf). Killer race! Best of Luck Elizabeth!

I look forward to race reports and observations. Good luck to all competitors!

[DavidA]

See only a couple other names I recognize (and one that is not to be mentioned).

Seriously?!
He's going to set the WR for sure this time.

David

[MPx]

If I missed anyone I should be watching, post them and I'll cheer from here.

Best of Luck Elizabeth!

I look forward to race reports and observations. Good luck to all competitors!

Thanks for posting Mark and I'll be watching some of it alongside (3000 miles away!)

Is Jeremy Martin on the 70s list? Hes been rewriting the British Records over the last year or so and should be virtually there. I dont think the WR is in any danger, but he's already posted a 6:56 this month in the IRL so will be pretty hard to beat even by Rick.

Best of luck to Elizabeth in the verso and anyone else on here taking part.

[Yankeerunner]

Taking a break back at the hotel after racing and watching some of the others. Turns out I'm going to miss Elizabeth Gilmore's first event in the Versa. Definitely going to make a point to watch the second event later in the day. It looks to be a killer.

Unfortunately for me the 75-79 division (and all other older divisions) were eliminated this year. I was 6th, and told the 7th place finisher (age 77) that we really SHOULD have been 1st and 2nd. He agreed, and said that he was pissed when he learned of this ageist decision. Nevertheless, I was happy to break 8, which I've been struggling to do this winter.

Alain Mangin only withdrew from the In-person racing. He rowed, and won, from home in the Hybrid way of doing it. I'd be willing to bet he'll be in the 500 too.

Unfortunately Sango (Andrew Sangster) must have had some computer glitch, as in the venue it kept showing him to still be rowing when the instructions were to Stop Rowing. The race was delayed some 10-15 minutes before the organizer decided to just delete his entry. Too bad. He's always one to the top finishers and I was looking forward to seeing him on the screen.

The world record was broken in the 70+ heavyweights, but not by He-who-shall-not-be-named.

Andy Benko broke his own 55-59 Hwt record that he broke three weeks ago in Atlantic City. 6:09.9 today.

Time to shower up and head back to watch more races.

[Cyclist2]

Good show, Rick! You looked like you earned that sub 8'.

They posted a time of 6:25.5 for Gregory Cook on the live tracker, a new world record for 50-54 LM. But under the results, it shows him 6th at 6:58.7. In either case, Congratulations! (Haven't seem him post here for a while).

Watching the Versa #1. Getting tense.

[gregory.cook]

They posted a time of 6:25.5 for Gregory Cook on the live tracker, a new world record for 50-54 LM. But under the results, it shows him 6th at 6:58.7.

The 6th place 6:58.7 is, unfortunately, the accurate result. After the race in which I began in about 8th and moved up to 6th, the result on my erg showed me at 6:16.3 and Jose Germán Rendo Ximeno at 6:36.x. I immediately wrote an email to World Rowing with picture of my real 2K and another to Jose congratulating him on his victory. Klaus Bischof, the current record holder, messaged me at about the same time; I told him about the error as well.

[Tsnor]

They posted a time of 6:25.5 for Gregory Cook on the live tracker, a new world record for 50-54 LM. But under the results, it shows him 6th at 6:58.7.

.. I immediately wrote an email to World Rowing with picture of my real 2K and another to Jose congratulating him on his victory. Klaus Bischof, the current record holder, messaged me at about the same time; I told him about the error as well.

Just what you want to be doing after you crank out a great max effort 2K. Hope it didn't spoil your day. Well done.

[gregory.cook]

Something I should have mentioned yesterday... my wife, Arlene Wade, won the 55-59 Lwt race. She is the World Champion!

[Cyclist2]

Something I should have mentioned yesterday... my wife, Arlene Wade, won the 55-59 Lwt race. She is the World Champion!

Congratulations to her, too!

Sorry to miss that race, she pretty much dominated.

[Yankeerunner]

Something I should have mentioned yesterday... my wife, Arlene Wade, won the 55-59 Lwt race. She is the World Champion!

I saw her up on the BIG screen in Toronto. She looked fantastic, as always. Congratulations to both of you for another championship well-rowed!

[Cyclist2]

CONGRATULATIONS, ELIZABETH!!

First winner of the Versa Challenge.

I really enjoyed watching that event. Some amazing turns of events, especially that Bullseye Challenge. It's sort of like a pentathlon - don't have to be the strongest, just the most consistent. You really showed that you have the erg mastered, in all aspects.

Again, fantastic job!

[Cyclingman1]

What exactly is a Versa challenge?

[Yankeerunner]

Here is Elizabeth in action, during the second (and ill-fated) challenge. She was fantastic, adapting to unusual and difficult challenges thrown at the competitors at the last minute. A truly versatile champion.

https://youtu.be/mGvP2WxD5x0

[Elizabeth]

What exactly is a Versa challenge?

This was the inaugural year. There was an early qualification period, and all that the athletes knew going into it is that it would consist of five events over the two competition days, and to "expect the unexpected".

We learned the first event about a week before the competition, "beep test", in which we had progressively shorter and shorter intervals to complete 1150m/950m (men/women). If you completed all, you were scored on average splits. If you failed any, you were ranked behind those who completed, and were scored on total completed meters (max 1150/950 per interval). The final two intervals for the women had to be done at a 1:55 and 1:45 pace with no rest to complete them all; the men were quite a bit faster and they knew going into it that there was maybe one competitor with a shot at completing it. I deliberately hung back on intervals 1-6 to make sure that I could complete the last one. It was so hard because we could see event time remaining and current split on our PM5, and meters to go on an external screen, but no average splits. I gunned it and came in around a 1:42-1:43 at the end, but was worried that wasn't enough.

We learned the fifth event in a competitors meeting immediately following the fourth event. I was a mental mess going into that one for various reasons and the guys from Live2Row jumped away from their booth to give me pointers. I'm so grateful.

The programming required to stand all this up was immense, and particularly given that they were putting on a hybrid event for the first time. It seemed like the hybrid piece went smoothly, which affected so many competitors that I'm glad they made sure that went off without a hitch. Olena Buryak competed virtually and just killed it. Phil Clapp won the 500m virtually. Nina Thölking set a new world record for the 40-49 age group virtually. And then there were so many amazing performances in person. I missed so many because of Versa warmups, events, and briefings, but was glad to catch the tail end of the men's 23-39 2k. I watched the men's 500m peeking out from the curtains when I should have been warming up for Versa Event 2 - along with a bunch of other Versa competitors.

Unfortunately, there were some hiccups. When we got into the second round of the elimination challenge - the one YankeeRunner mentioned - it wasn't clear from the screens who was eliminated in the first round or even what the relative rankings were for the second round. They asked us to put handles down and then go to the warmup area while they sorted it out and eventually made the correct call to postpone/cancel so that the next events could go as scheduled. There was an athletes meeting and a vote on whether we would do an extra event (for four total) on Sunday to make it up. I was down for ALL the events Sunday but the majority wanted to stick with "just" the planned three.

It was a great event overall, and a lot of fun finally meeting people who I've been following virtually. Thanks YankeeRunner for the loud cheering on Event 2 - it was great to meet you even briefly!

Gregory and Arlene - a huge congratulations!

[TomR]

major congratulations rick bayko. breaking 8 is big medicine.