Asian Rowing Champs Underway in China

The 9th Asian Rowing Championships and the 7th Asian Junior Championships are underway at the Yangling Watersports Centre located some 80 km from the ancient city of Xi’an, in China. Crews from 12 nations are taking part, contesting in 17 events for seniors and 8 events for juniors, with some 250 athletes and 120 boats. Chris Perry, FISA Consultant for the Development Programme in Asia, reports from China for the first two days of racing.

Due to a large number of events which were created by combining the junior and senior championships, and the fact that many federations are not in a position to send extremely large teams, all of the events except JM1x , LM2x and M4x have resulted in straight finals. This means that most of the heats are trial races, with crews fighting for lanes rather than places. Nevertheless, most crews made use of the opportunity to test their opponents today and took advantage of the excellent racing conditions to produce some exciting racing.

Host country China made a strong early showing with wins in ten out of the twelve trial races in Group A. Looking particularly powerful was top female sculler Zhang Xiuyun (Olympic medallist in W2x in Atlanta). Zhang easily won her singles race over Pere Karoba of Indonesia and appeared just an hour later with partner Zhang Suhang, to win the women’s double as well.

The junior men’s single attracted the largest number of entries and was one event where crews were fighting for places in the final. Hong Kong’s Law Hiu-fung (9th at the World Junior Championships in Duisburg earlier this year) won the first heat to gain entry to the final. Indonesia’s Jefraim Jolo won heat two.Crews from Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong also featured strongly in many of Sunday’s trial races.

The preliminary races for Group B took place Monday and once again many of the heats were trial races. China won the first heat of the lightweight men’s double while Chinese Taipei won the second heat. Both qualify directly for the finals in this event. Another dramatic race came in the first heat of the men’s quadruple sculls. The Hong Kong crew, silver medallists at the East Asian Games, led Kazakhstan by just under a length going into the last 500 metres when the Hong Kong stroke caught a boat-stopping crab. This allowed the Kazakhstan crew to move into a one length lead. The Hong Kong crew then mounted a dramatic finishing sprint to regain the lead and win the heat. China won the other heat with both crews qualifying for the finals. China dominated most of the remaining trail races, with the exception of the pairs for junior men and women where Korea placed first in both events.

Repechages take place on Tuesday for the junior men’s single, lightweight men’s single and men’s quad events. Finals for Group A begin on Wednesday and for Group B on Thursday.