NEWS RELEASE
ORILLIA ROWING CLUB
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The 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles are set to include a new sport, Beach Sprint Rowing.
A sprint starts with the athletes running to the coastal rowing boats which are held by two handlers in the water. The athletes then navigate through a slalom of buoys, make a U-turn around a final buoy, sprint row back to the beach, jump out of the boat, and run to the finish line to pick up a flag.
The athletes are guided by a coach on shore with hand signals to guide them around the buoys on the way out. But on the way back they cannot see the coach, so you have to shout!
Perhaps some of Canada’s future Olympians in the sport took part in the RowOn Beach Sprint Championships, which determines the provincial champions, on June 22 in Port Dalhousie, near St. Catharines.
Anne Hodkin, coach of Orillia Rowing Club’s competitive program, thought the event might give the club’s competitive rowers a taste of the new sport.
“This is something new for us and we went with no expectation but to have some fun competition,” said Hodkin.
And so it was that eight of the club’s rowers took part in the championship. They did exceedingly well, considering this was the first time they had ever competed in the sport. The club only just acquired one coastal rowing boat this season.
In the U19 Mixed Double event, the Orillia rowers swept first (Autumn Prior and Sam Pecorella), second (Elias Fiddick and Molly Hazel), and third place (Maelle Bouchard and Matthew Pecorella).
In the U19 Women’s Double event, Prior and Hazel came first.
In the U19 Women’s Solo event, Prior again came first and Bouchard came third.
In the U19 Men’s Solo event, Fiddick came third.
Cedar Wink and Iris Fiddick also competed in the Open Women’s Solo and Open Mixed Double (each partnered with rowers from Ridley College in St. Catharines). However, in the Open events they were up against older, more experienced rowers and failed to make it past the quarter finals in their events.
“It was pretty intense,” said coach Hodkin. “It took a village of parents to help pull off the team endeavour.”
“You have about six minutes between events, in which time you have to adjust the boats to the height of the athlete and adjust the feet sizes and oars," explained the coach.
“Then you are given a one-minute warning where you have to have the boat ready to take into the water," Hodkin said.
“The wind and water conditions change constantly as the day moves on and you have to keep adjusting reading the wind and changing your strategy," she explained. “Things happen throughout the race that you don’t plan on. The shove is not straight. You lose a grip on the blade. You hit a marker, misjudge the turn or get blown by the wind. You can win or lose the race by a point of a second on the run back up the beach," said Hodkin.
“We had a fantastic parent team who helped pull the event off,” said Hodkin. Kate Gauldie (mother of Sam and Matthew) had the feet sizes, stretcher placements and events for each boat. Dean Prior (father of Autumn), Rodney Kydd (grandfather of Autumn) and Eric Bouchard (father of Maelle) were boat handlers and shovers, and Hodkin directed the boats from the shore.
“It got a little crazy at one point as many of the club’s crews got through to the next rounds, were racing each other, or had back-to-back races, and I could not be in the different places at the same time but we did very well," said Hodkin.
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