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KMRC @ 2005 World Masters Games

July 22-25, 2005

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

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The World Masters Games opens Friday, July 22nd, in Edmonton, Alberta Province, Canada. Over 23,000 masters athletes (age 27 and older) have registered to compete in more than 25 different sports. The Kent Mitchell Rowing Club from the San Francisco Bay Area is competing in its third consecutive World Masters regatta. KMRC has entered its 23 member competitors (ranging from age 27 to 68) in 23 men's rowing events over the 4 days of competition beginning Friday morning, July 22nd, and ending Monday evening, July 25th.

Today's report is below.

Day 2 - KMRC Preview

On Saturday, the second day of rowing competition at the World Masters Games, 7 of the KMRC crews embark on a new program including the following 5 different events.

F4+ (Four with coxswain, age 60+)

Dick Lyon, Larry Hough, Skip Spiering and Andy Kerr with Kent Mitchell as coxswain have a rubber match with the Australian Crew that beat them Friday by 0.25 seconds in the four without coxswain event for this age group. The KMRC crew will also have to contend with an excellent crew from Occoquan Boat Club which will be manned by one member of the Occoquan G4+ crew that defeated KMRC by 2 seconds on Friday and two other rowers whom KMRC defeated in other boats the same day. Eleven crews face off in 2 heats with the top 4 in each heat to progress to the 8-boat afternoon final.

B4+ (Four with coxswain, age 36+)

Thirteen boats square off in 2 heats with the top 4 in each heat to the 8-boat final. KMRC has two entries in this hotly contested bracket which is likely to end up with both going after each other in the final. KMRC's boats are built around men from its B4- four without-coxswain boat, and from its A4X quadruple sculls boat, both of which won World Masters Games gold medals on Friday. Both KMRC boats are next to each other in their opening qualifying heat. One is made up of Kieran Clifford, Mike McGinty, Matt McKnight and Greg Springer and the other of Brian Jamieson, Berkeley ( Augie ) Johnson, Craig Webster and Mike Still, with coxswains Kent Mitchell and Andrew Probert tossing a coin to see which boats they cox.

A2X (Double Sculls, age 27+)

1996 Olympic Silver Medalists in the quad, Jason Gailes and Tim Young, will be entering a hot field of 22 double sculls boats rowing in 3 separate heats, 2 semi-finals and an 8-boat grand final to determine the winner. This will be a very competitive event.

C8+ (Eight with coxswain, age 43+)

Fresh off its victory in the C4+ for this age group, 3 members from the KMRC winning 4+ will add 5 of its other team members to take on a very strong field of Italian, Canadian, Russian and US rowers in this prestigious event. Those who will row for KMRC in this race are Sean Gorvy and Neil West ( from the UK ), Skip Spiering, Greg Springer, Brian Jamieson, Augie Johnson, Craig Webster and Mike Still with UK coxswain, Andrew Probert.

A4- (Four without coxswain, age 27+)

The only two crews currently listed for this event are both KMRC crews, but the field will probably expand by start of racing. This will be a final only with no heats.

 

KMRC - Day 2 Report

Video clip: 40+ mile per hour headwind and whitecaps which caused suspension of racing Saturday morning. (7.7 MB Quicktime file)

The wind has picked up her to 70 kilometers per hour. They cancelled all races for today after completing about half of the scheduled heats this morning. The only KMRC boat that raced was the F4+ (60+) with Andy Kerr, Skip Spiering, Larry Hough, Dick Lyon and me in the boat. The headwind was so strong, and the waves so high, that 10 waves went over the bow into the bow loaded cox compartment where I was, going completely over my head and inundating me. Still, rowing at 26 strokes per minute, this boat won the race and qualified for the final, whenever that may take place.

At 10:00 am tomorrow, the FISA officials running the regatta will announce a plan for making up the remainder of today's race program on Sunday and Monday. Should be better weather tomorrow with winds dropping to 15 km/hr, quite manageable.

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