Lots of puke, shattered world records, and a coxing priest - pretty sure that's the only time those three things have been written in one list, but if you were at the 2015 C.R.A.S.H.-B. Sprints, you would have them all.
As for the puke and world records, those don't come as too much of a surprise; it is the Indoor World Rowing Championships after all. And athletes who feel they aren't quite ready when the day arrives are not uncommon, either – although Mark Hebda's request to his former work colleague who has become a Catholic priest to cox his race was a fairly unique solution. Call on your friends (and their friends), it just might help.
This year, the race came two weeks later than usual – a change made to accommodate junior athletes, many of whom in previous years were on school vacation and unable to make it to the race. The junior numbers did increase this year – with 476 junior men and 448 junior women compared to last year's 416 junior men and 328 junior women.
On the other hand, the number of collegiate athletes dropped slightly, because of the proximity to the spring racing season.
Turn it up
Without a doubt, the loudest few minutes in the arena began halfway through the junior women's heavyweight race, when the announcer declared that Greek rower Sophia Asoumanaki, who came in 4th in the W1x at Junior Worlds last summer, was on track to beat the junior women's heavyweight world record of 6:33.9.
As she pushed toward the finish line, her splits were solidly in the mid to low 1:30s, and if you listened closely (or let's be honest, not so closely) you could hear expletives of excitement and disbelief as she set the new World Record at 6:30.2, just five seconds off the Open Women's World Record , whew! To top it all off, Asoumanaki had the fastest women's time of the day, beating the Open Women's winner (and two time C.R.A.S.H.-B. Champion) Kaisa Pajusalu by 13 seconds.
"My initial goal was first place, but the world record was my target," said Asoumanaki. "This was an unbelievable experience; the best experience I have ever had. When I was reaching the finish line I could feel the crowd and I started counting down the meters. I thought 'Now I can do it, I don't feel pain anymore. I can do it.'"
Despite finishing second after her win last year, Dana Moffat still threw down a competitive and exciting race, breaking the American Junior Women's record with a very solid PR of 6:48.7.
The volume and excitement of the junior women's race was almost matched by the crowd as they watched the penultimate race of the day, the open men. Two hulking rowers– Angel Fournier Rodriguez of Cuba and Sam Loch of Australia– sat side-by-side, ready to battle stroke-for-stroke. Fournier Rodriguez, the single sculler and 2014 Worlds bronze medalist from Cuba stands at 6'10" and while Loch, 2008 and 2012 Australian Olympian sits at a "shorter" 6'1" with bulging muscles and a trendy man-bun.
Loch went off the line like a speed demon, leaving Fournier Rodriguez in his proverbial wake, but as the first thousand meters progressed, Fournier Rodriguez creeped closer and closer to Loch, and finally overtook him halfway through the race. Fournier Rodriguez' splits late in the race in the low 1:20's were astounding, but the speed was hard to grasp until the announcer commented, "He's going to finish this last 400 in under a minute!" Fournier Rodriguez took the win with a 5:45.9.
He was so focused that he blocked out all the noise, "While I was going, I didn’t pay attention to any of the noise, I just concentrated in my goal to win," said Fournier Rodriguez', through a translator. "It was my first time at C.R.A.S.H.-B.'s and it was a wonderful experience racing with people who train for erging since I don't do indoor races often."
On the Junior Men's side, Brennan Wertz took home the hammer during his first race at C.R.A.S.H.-B. The high school senior, who rows at Marin, had never made the trip out to Boston, but after racing the qualifier at the Peninsula Indoor Rowing Championships in Redwood, CA decided he wanted to try it out.
"Before the qualifier, I'd never done anything like this," said Wertz. "Marin actually had a race [on the water] this weekend, so it was tough to make the decision between coming here and missing out on the race because I want to support my team, but they were really supportive and wanted me to do this – so I'm really glad to be bringing this home to them."
No Excuses
Ok, so you're not going to go 6:30.2 or 5:45.9? Neither will we. But don't let that serve as an excuse next time you hop on the erg. This year's C.R.A.S.H.-B. was chock full of folks of all ages racing and medaling for the first time, trying something new and succeeding.
The day of racing at C.R.A.S.H.-B. kicks off with adaptive racing, and the field of adaptive competitors keeps growing and growing. This year in particular, the international field of adaptive athletes seemed to be larger than ever with athletes from countries including Canada, Brazil, Ukraine, and Poland. The other highlight of this year's adaptive races was that the categories were expanded, allowing athletes to win their own age groups, as is the case in the non-adaptive racing. In past years, adaptive athletes were only able to row in either junior or open races.
Lianne Gibson, the Open Legs, Trunk and Arms (LTA) champion, was a first time C.R.A.S.H-B. racer; she just began rowing last spring, and raced on the Canadian Para team last summer.
"This is my second indoor race ever; my first was the qualifier a month ago," she said. "I just wanted to row with good technique and show everything that I learned over the last few months. It was about length and strength and making my coaches proud.
"I used to be a boxer and a fighter. After my accident I was looking for another sport that was intense and highly competitive. I've fallen in love with rowing"
For Jessica De La Rosa of Row New York, rowing isn't just another sport, it's the one sport she can really compete in.
"With my disability I can't do contact sports because I can get hurt easily – no basketball, or tennis," she said. "I was finally able to find a sport I could do and not physically hurt myself."
De La Rosa came in 2nd place in the Trunk-Arms Masters Women (30-39), and was one of the athletes who really benefited from the age breakdowns, as she was able to compete against athletes who were in the same age group as her, instead of being pegged against younger athletes.
Speaking of younger athletes, this year was the second running of the youth event, comprised of 12 and 13 year old athletes. It's pretty adorable, if you can call erging adorable. The race takes place over four minutes instead of the 2k distance, so that all of the kids end at the same time, with the winners are determined by number of meters rowed.
Two of the top finishers – Conner Toomey, the 2nd place finisher on the boys side, and Beatrice Bernard, the hammer winner on the girls side, both began rowing just last fall. Less than six months ago, these kids didn't know bow from stern, port from starboard, C.R.A.S.H.-B. from crashing into a bridge. This weekend, they walked into the Agganis Arena, total erg race novices, and left with the first hardware of their rowing careers.
Oh, right, now your excuse is that you didn't start when you were in middle school. Think you're too old to row? Nice try, but some of the most accomplished hammer winners didn't pick up erging or rowing until they were well past their youth.
Stephen Rounds, racing in the 85-89 Heavyweight Veteran Men's category, won his 20th hammer this year. And the real kicker? He's only been rowing 18 years. He got those extra hammers at the beginning of his rowing career when there were age handicaps – he would win overall, and with the handicap – taking home multiple hammers for a few years before the handicap was eliminated.
"I started rowing when I was 68 years old; one of my sons bought me a rowing machine, and I didn't even know what it was," said Rounds. "I got on it and didn't think it was a big deal, but my sons convinced me to go to a satellite race. At the time, the age group was just 50+, so when I got there everyone was bigger than me and younger, but at the end of the race someone told me you have qualified for the C.R.A.S.H.-B.'s. I thought to myself, 'I've never even heard of the C.R.A.S.H.-B.'s!'"
If you're wondering what one does with 20 hammers? "Well, I gave one to each of my grandchildren, but I still have a whole basket of them sitting at home. I don't know what to do with them!"
Sally Callahan, winner of the 80-84 Heavyweight Veteran Women's race was another competitor who got a late start to rowing.
"I started rowing when I was 79. It keeps me active!" said the two-time C.R.A.S.H.-B. champion. "I also have goats, so they keep me active too. I used to milk 99 goats by hand – so yeah, I have a lot of upper arm strength."
Another lesson we learned: a broken leg is not a very good excuse to not race (and win) at C.R.A.S.H.-B.'s, as demonstrated by James Castellan. Castellan beat the 70-74 Heavyweight Men's World Record by a second, earlier last month. He was still 69 at the time, but would turn 70 before C.R.A.S.H.-B.'s and had his eyes on officially breaking the record as a septuagenarian. Then, just three days after his qualifier race, he took a spill.
"I was going out to get a load of wood with my wheelbarrow and slipped on a patch of ice," said Castellan. "It knocked the wind out of me. I thought I had just twisted my ankle, but I went to urgent care and they told me we had to take an x-ray. They said it was a fracture close to the knee so I had to wear a knee brace.
"I didn’t think I would be able to erg today, but the doctor said ice it, keep it elevated, soak it in warm water, and if it doesn't hurt, then try erging. I started one-legged erging, which is a very different experience. I only did a couple of test pieces to see if I could make it, and so I came."
He came, he raced, he pulled a 6:58.9, to take home his fifth hammer. Not quite the record, but an inspirational example of grit and determination.
What brings people back to C.R.A.S.H.-B. year after year has a lot to do with these stories. Not a lot of sporting events take people of all backgrounds, all experience levels, all abilities and have them compete on the same day, in the same arena, with the same equipment. It's a unique event, and brings rowing people together in a way they don't get to experience at every regatta. There are so many reunions, planned and unplanned. People stopping on the steps, arms outstretched for a hug from an old friend, or hopping on an erg to find a former teammate racing next to them. Maybe it's a little touchy-feely, but sometimes you need touchy-feely when the alternative is a lot of puke.
One of those reunions occurred in the morning, as Holly Hatton coxed Carie Graves to a win in the veteran women 60-64 division. The two would have raced together at the 1980 Olympics, and in the wake of the US boycott were at the very first C.R.A.S.H.-B.'s – an informal race at Newell Boathouse. That very first year, Graves won the women's event against ten or so other women. Though the raced has changed dramatically over the years, Carie's fondness of C.R.A.S.H.-B. has only grown.
"C.R.A.S.H.-B. has a special meaning, because it's so much bigger than that first year," said Graves. "There are so many more women competing, and many of the women here did not have a chance to be an athlete when they were in college. It's so moving to see these women come out to race; they are here and they're loving being strong and competitive, and getting up on the stage and being lauded for the same thing men are doing. I feel that is so breathtakingly wonderful. I just love that part."
Just one more story for you to illustrate the growth of the sport of rowing.
Anne Bourlioux, who won the Veteran Women's 50-54 race (with a sick 7:10.4), was heading to Boston from her hometown Montreal and had to stop at the border.
"When I got to the border, the US border guard asked me the purpose of my trip and I told him I was going to a race," she said. "He asked what sort of race, so I told him indoor rowing expecting to have to explain what it was. He said 'Oh yeah it's C.R.A.S.H.-B. weekend! I recognize you from a video on YouTube!' I was thrilled!"
Everyone was just grateful one record wasn't broken: total snow. Boston's been hit hard with snow this winter, and as of Sunday morning was a mere 5.6 inches from breaking the all-time winter snow record of 107.6 inches. When the forecast threatened up to six inches of snow starting Sunday afternoon, there was a bit of nervousness, as Boston's storms this winter have been generous, and often worse than predicted. Thankfully, the weather held off for the first time in weeks. More snow on the way later this week, we'll let you know when we hit our snowy PR.
Another winter, another erg season. Though it doesn't seem like people will be rowing on the water soon in a lot of northern cities, including Boston, C.R.A.S.H.-B. at least makes spring seem like a real possibility, instead of a faraway season.
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