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New Millennium International Boat Race Results
January 1, 2000 (New Zealand Time)
Here are the unofficial results of the first international rowing race of the New
Millennium, between Masters crews from New Zealand, Great Britain and the United States.
The race began precisely 0.57 seconds after New Zealand, in the World's first time zone,
entered the New Millennium at midnight New Zealand time on January 1, 2000. This race is
believed to be the first international rowing competition of the New Millennium, and very
likely the first international competition of the New Millennium in any sport.
These results are unofficial, because protests have been filed.
The three crews were located on three separate continents, connected by cell phones. Audio
tapes of the teleconferenced race produced enough suspect evidence to prompt the USA to
protest these results, on grounds not yet completely clear or substantiated. The results
for the NZL and USA crews are based on verbal reports provided during the progress of the
race by NZL coxswain, Lynne Taite, and USA coxswain, Kent Mitchell, as to the precise
moments each of their coxed four oared crews reached the 500 meter and 1000 meter marks on
their respective courses thousands of sea miles apart. According to Lynne's report, at the
moment her crew reached the 500 meter halfway point, only 58 seconds had elapsed in the
race. If her report is accurate, then this mixed masters crew of 3 men and 1 woman just
set a world record for 500 meters in a four with, including all Olympic and World
Championship fours that have ever raced. By contrast, Mitchell reported in at the 500
meter mark when the official clock registered 1:32. The operator of this official clock
was JoAnn Mitchell, wife of coxswain Mitchell. As yet no formal protests about possible
conflict of interest have been presented either by NZL or GBR regarding this relationship,
but the time period for initiating protests has not yet elapsed. JoAnn was herself linked
with the crews by telephone from her home in the same teleconferencing call and she manned
(or rather "womanned") the official computer timing system for this race.
The problem here is that both NZL (rowing at midnight on January
1st in Hamilton, New Zealand) and the USA (rowing at 3:00 am California time December
31st) were both rowing in the dark, and could not be expected to pick out interval points,
or finish lines, with much precision. NZL was represented by the Hamilton Rowing Club and
was rowing on the Waikato River course in the middle of Hamilton's bombastic display of
fireworks marking the advent of the New Millennium. The USA was represented by the Kent
Mitchell Rowing Club in Redwood City, California, frogging around in total darkness on a
moonless night about a mile out into San Francisco Bay. Nevertheless, for now we are
reporting the NZL and USA times as taken from the recording of the international
teleconferencing call set up by the USA firm of AT&T to link these crews to the
official timer.
The protest, however, does not stop at the NZL and USA times, but
extends to the GBR crew's performance also. GBR was represented by the famous Tideway
Scullers (UK) and was rowing its 1000 meter segment on the Championship "Boat
Race" Course on the tideway portion of the Thames River in London. The GBR course ran
with the current from University Post to Barnes Bridge. There are two grounds asserted
here for protest. First, the UK has recently experienced massive storms, so massive in
fact that great volumes of runoff water are flowing down the Thames into London's tideway,
all but nullifying the normal ebb and flow of those tides. Indeed, Chris Williams of the
Tideway boat reported that if GBR had rowed exactly 1000 meters, the current was so strong
that they would have covered the distance in 2:15, a good minute faster than is imaginable
for a masters crew. So, GBR "estimated" what distance it should actually row to
adjust for conditions, and thereby end up with a representative 1000 meter time to make
the race "fair". Though a noble gesture indeed, this does not necessarily lead
to acceptance without further verification and expert analysis. In addition, about halfway
through the race, the telephone connection between GBR and the other crews and the
official timer inexplicably went dead. Thus the recording of the teleconferencing call is
devoid of any reports from GBR coxswain, Bart Hudson, except for early stages of the race,
and there is no indication on the tape as to when his crew reached either their
"presumed" 500 meter mark, or their "reconstructed" finish line.
Whether this sudden telephonic silence from the UK is attributable to a documentable
"Y2K mishap", or simply provides an opportunity to finish the race "in
camera" and report GBR results "in good faith" is pure speculation at this
time. As in any serious international competition of this nature, however, this situation
deserves some additional scrutiny. But for now, the only information available from GBR to
the official timer is that it "finished the course in 3:15 and had a good row."
The 500 meter interval time we have reported for GBR is an attempt to guestimate by crude
interpolation when GBR actually reached its halfway point.
Thus for the moment, and until these protests can be resolved by
the appropriate means before the proper authority, we are reporting
"unofficially" that NZL won in 3:07, GBR was second in 3:15 and the USA was
third in 3:18.
Furthermore, coxswain Mitchell is an attorney and one of GBR's
rowers, as well as GBR's regular coxswain, are of a like profession. Given this
unfortunate mix of characters and the zeal one can expect NZL to display in protecting its
unofficial victor's status, it is anticipated that this matter will take a long time to
resolve, perhaps even a full thousand years more of arguing, at which time perhaps a Y3K
New Millennium match-up will be required to rid the World of this distasteful dispute.
Members of each crew, their coaches, assistants and the officials
for this race are as follows:
NZL: Bow Reece McVinnie; #2 Harvey Nelson; #3 Rochelle McVinnie;
Stroke David Rodger (Olympic Bronze medalist; 3 time World Championships Bronze medalist;
1 time World Championships Silver medalist; and 1982 & 1983 Gold Medalist in World
Championships); Coxswain Lynne Taite; and Coach Andy Nelson.
GBR: Bow Hugh Williams; #2 Brian Sweeney; #3 Chris Williams; Stroke David
Hudson; and coxswain Bart Hudson.
USA: Bow Shawn Heffernan; #2 Skip Spiering; #3 Mike Still (Gold Medalist
USA World Championship eight, 1987, and 1992 Olympian); Stroke Dick Lyon (Olympic Bronze
medalist 1964, 1972 Olympian); Coxswain Kent Mitchell (Olympic Bronze and Gold medals,
1960 and 1964); Coach Wieslaw Kujda (Olympian and Varsity Coach Stanford University).
Officials:
Timer and Computer Operator: JoAnn Mitchell
Videographer (USA): Catriona Fallon
Web site production: Jeff Shimbo
Special thanks to Don Rowlands of New Zealand and Harry Harvey of UK for their support
in providing names and telephone numbers of rowers in their countries crazy enough to pull
this off with less than 24 hours previous notice.
Submitted respectfully by Kent Mitchell. |
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