Youth Nationals has forever had a traditional championship racing format of heats and reps to semifinals, and semifinals to finals.
But under the weight of bigger and ever growing regatta that is already crammed tight into a three-day schedule and has been adversely impacted by weather issues the last two years, the regatta format has been changed to a time trials direct to semi-finals or lower level finals, depending on the number of entries.
What happens when a bulging regatta meets bad weather conditions was on full display last year when high winds churned up Mercer Lake in West Windsor, New Jersey and races were canceled.
"The goal with switching to time trials, was to guarantee that we give ourselves a chance of getting the crews in the A finals in the best conditions and ready to race," said USRowing's event manager, A.J. Dominique.
"The last two years, we've had weather issues, and last year we had major issues, so one of the reasons was to make sure we gave ourselves the best chance of not having to cancel any racing.
"On the competitive front," he said, "rather than using subjective seeding with a lot crews that don't race each other that much all year, this gave us a better barometer to seed crews forward rather than just drawing on finishes and dissimilar qualifiers."
Time trials have become much more prevalent, but are still rarely a popular change - crews work really had all year, and spend a lot of money on travel to participate when they do qualify. The prospect being eliminated from a chance to race for a championship after a single spin down the course is tough to take.
Still, the opinions of a random sampling of coaches on the first day of the 2017 Youth National Championships at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota on Friday had some mixed reviews, but were surprisingly understanding and accepting.
Here's what they had to say:
Caitlynn Crouch, Sarasota Crew - "There are positives and negatives to it. We were in Mercer last year where they had to condense everything, and the way things were going, it gave a big disadvantage to the teams that should probably have been out there. I think this format is good because it helps us progress appropriately, especially in a weather situation. But it's always fun to watch racing six lanes across."
Michiel Bartman, Friends of Port Rowing - "I like this format. It eliminated, a race, but the difficulty with an event like this is the seeding, where teams basically never race each other. It's defiantly hard, because the heats are six across racing. But I think for this, the time trial format is the way to go."
Peter Wilhelm, Narragansett Boat Club - "I think it's a mix. The advantage of the time trial is it helps them get the races in, although as a spectator, when a regular race is going on six boats at a time, you know what's going on. In time trials, you have an idea if a crew is moving pretty well, but it doesn't have the same impact."
Larry Mobeious, Chaminade High School - "I'd rather have heats. Right now there's one shot, top 12, going to the semis, then to finals. If you have an issue in the time trial, you don’t have a second chance. In the old format, if you have an issue, at least you had the rep and a second chance. Now, you get one chance to go to top twelve, and that's it."
Heat - And A Lot Of It
Another big topic of the day was the heat - it is Florida after all. For crews unused to competing in high temperatures, heat and humidity can be a challenge. While local crews might be a little more used to the kind of heat and blazing sun that beat down on the race course Friday, every crew was taking precautions.
And according to the Sarasota County Fire Department crew on scene, there were no emergencies.
"The heat's not too bad and the humidity is pretty low, so we're pretty happy about that," said EMT Joey Reyes. "No issues today. We just react to what happens and if there is an emergency on the scene, we deal with it. We usually hang out on the finish line where the majority of accidents and heat exhaustion and things like that happen. But we haven’t had any issues, thank God."
Sounds like the athletes are being well prepared by their coaches. Or they have a few sunburns under their belts.
"The main thing is to hydrate, stay out of the sun and wear sunscreen, the basics," said Bartman, whose team is based on Long Island, N.Y. "Also, they learned a little lesson when we had our own regatta back in April, the Row for Autism. It was the best day that we had in the spring. So they were wearing tank tops and they all got sunburned pretty bad. So that was a lesson. But the main thing is to stay out of the sun."
It would make sense that a Georgia based team would be used to rowing in this kind of weather. And they might be in the summer, but not just yet. "It's humid, but it's nothing like this. This is fifteen degrees above where we've been, and probably twenty-percent higher humidity," said coach Jake Kazlow of Roswell Ga-based St. Andrew Rowing Club.
"We don't have this much heat," agreed Brice Hudson, who was rowing in the St. Andrew lightweight four, and advanced into the Saturday A/B semifinal. "It's typically a little bit cooler. What we do is, mainly, hydration, lots of Gatorade, lots of water, and wear long sleeve shirts.
"We've been here before, so I knew it was going to be hot."
Narragansett's Wilhelm tells his kids a lot of the same things that all the coaches are telling their crews, hydrate and stay out of the sun as much as possible when not racing. But Wilhelm does have some very specific advice when it comes to racing here.
"I tell them to move the boat."
Test Case
Nathan Benderson Park will host the World Rowing Championships this September, and a group of FISA representative are on the venue inspecting the facilities and observing how a large regatta operates here.
FISA was also taking the opportunity to make a film of the event from a helicopter that circled the race course during the last hour of racing and hovered over the finish line after the Men's Youth Eight semifinal, the last semi of the day.
There is one thing for sure they are learning, and filming - the venue is still a construction site. The much talked about finish line tower is completed, mostly, and is being used for the first time this weekend.
But not everything about the venue, or the new building, is completed. That's most evident at the top of the course where the start platform is being built. Workers kept at it during racing Friday when the ongoing improvements had event officials calling the start in front of a gang of workers moving earth and stone and operating heavy machinery.
And Speaking of Weather
The time trial format could get put to the test Saturday. The weather forecast Friday evening called for a threat of thunderstorms from about mid-morning to late afternoon Saturday. There are no schedule changes to report as of the close of racing, but Sarasota is a tropical climate and storms can come up quickly and pack a punch.
The A/B semifinals are set to be run in the morning. The C/D finals are scheduled for the afternoon. If there are delays, officials are prepared to race until dusk.
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