Going fast indoors at Euro Open

From: www.worldrowing.com

The Euro Open, indoor rowing competition, returned to the Pierre de Coubertin Arena in Paris, France at the weekend for the first time since 2003.  More than 2000 people from 18 countries registered for the races. This included the entire of the French national team that competed at the 2010 World Rowing Championships in Karapiro. 

The category with the most entries was for the youngest competitors, the junior 15 - 16 ‘cadets’, with 230 boys and girls.  A new university race was added this year to accommodate for the growing interest in this area. Age group categories went right up to 80 year olds.

The adaptive races attracted 69 adaptive athletes who competed over 1000m across the AS, TA and LTA classifications. Three records were broken. Naomi Riches from the British rowing team set a new record of 3:30.1 in the women’s LTA race. Remy Taranto from France did the same in the men’s LTA with 2:59.4. Pascal Daniere, also of France, set a new record for the men’s AS with a time of 3:50.8.

The women were first to race in the open categories over 2000m. In the heavyweight event, Alice Mayne of France dominated the first 500m before being overhauled, initially by France’s senior representative, Stephanie Dechand, and then by Pavlina Zizkova of the Czech Republic. Through the middle of the race, Zizkova was able to gradually pull away from her French competition. The sprint to the line brought the Czech athlete home in a winning time of 6:49.7. Next came Dechand in 6:53.1 and Mayne held on to take the bronze in 6:58.0.

The lightweight women’s race was an all French affair. Three athletes dominated from start to finish. The racing was tight, but the positions never changed.  Chloe Poumailloux at 18 years old, is just out of the French junior national team. She won in 7:11.9.  Second was one half of the French lightweight double, Eugenie Vince who finished in 7:15.3. The bronze went to the single sculler, Coralie Simon.

The open lightweight men’s was a race full of quality athletes. First to show were the Portuguese double of Pedro Fraga and Nuno Mendes. Fraga lead from Mendes after 500m, but it was a tightly packed field following only a couple of seconds back.  Fraga passed through halfway in 3:05.4, still out in front. Mendes then slipped behind the French quartet of Maxime Goisset, Stany Delayre, Jeremie Azou and Frederic Dufour. With about 600m to go, Delayre from the silver medal French lightweight quad, hit the front. Fraga was second, but Goisset and Azou were closing the gap. Fraga was still holding his position with just 250m to go, but he was clearly struggling to fend off the fast-finishing Frenchmen.  Delayre crossed the line first in 6:10.2.  Silver went to single sculler Goisset, in 6:11.9. The bronze was taken by Azou, from the French lightweight double, in 6:12.0. Fraga finished a very disappointed fourth.

The most eagerly awaited race of the day was the men’s open. French record holder, Cederic Berrest, was up against the rest of the French team and two giants of the indoor rowing world: Karsten Brodowski from Germany, holder of the junior world record, and Pavel Shurmei of Belarus, one of only three men ever to go under 5:40.

The tension of the moment resulted in two false starts, but when the race finally got underway it was Julien Bahain, Berrest’s partner in the double scull, that was fastest from the start line. The surprise in the early stages was Shurmei who, nursing a slight back injury, chose not to sprint and settled straight into race pace.  After 200m Shurmei was back in fifteenth place. By the 500m mark Berrest had hit the front. Brodowski was close behind in second with Bahain third while Shurmei had moved up to eighth. At the halfway stage Brodowski nudged in front of Berrest for the first time. Shurmei was now third and Bahain fourth.  With 500m to go Berrest was still pressing Brodowski, but a final 500 in 1:23.9 saw Brodowski pull away to win in 5:44.0.  Second was Berrest in 5:49.3 and Pavel Shurmei was third in 5:51.2. Bahain held off a strong challenge from Germain Chardin in the closing stages to finish fourth.

The afternoon schedule was dominated by 1000m team races.  More than 600 school boys and girls competed in crews of four. They raced side by side on four indoor rowers per team with the race system calculating the average pace for the crew. There was a terrific atmosphere and some very close racing.