The masters conclude at Poznan

The rowers came from 37 countries and went up in age from the youngest category ‘A’ right through to ‘J’ category which included the oldest man – 92 years old – and the oldest woman – 89 years old.

To get through this hefty number of races, officials started a new race every three minutes and with some rowers taking over five minutes to complete the 1000m course, a lot of tolerance and juggling had to come into play. In the ‘I’ men’s single, 81-year-old Stanislaw Soldatov of Russia’s Dymano Moscow club, took 5:32.52 to finish the course. Soldatov’s race was won by Germany’s Karl Trager, 78, of the German Ruderclub Rossleben. Trager’s time was 4:34.34.

At the other end of the scale Lars Bo Andersen of Denmark’s Soro Rowing Club, took 3:36.95 to cover the 1000m race in the ‘B’ category single. Andersen is 45 years old. This was just one of the events Andersen raced in as he, like many of the competitors, choose to race in a number of races.

Former Olympian, Pauline Bird, 54, of Great Britain, raced in six events including a number of different age categories as it is possible to row ‘down’ in a younger age category.

As the racing format does not include semifinals or finals, each event has a number of heats with the winner of each heat receiving a medal. The handing out of medals is thus a full-time job for the organising committee.

On the final day, Sunday, competitors joined together in mixed gender boats for 150 races with rowers deciding during the regatta what they would race in on this last day of racing.

Complete results: http://www.worldrowing.com/events/2011-world-rowing-masters-regatta-poznan-pol