Pure Peruvian coastal rowing excitement

The Bolivarian Beach Games, a multi-sport event, held coastal rowing in Lima, Peru, the venue for the 2015 World Rowing Coastal Championships. There were participants from five countries including Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Venezuela and El Salvador.

Peru topped the medals table by winning the men’s double, men’s coxed quad and men’s and women’s single.  Chile was first in the women’s double and Venezuela won the women’s coxed quad.

Raced over three days,  the standard 6km distance was used, except for the coxed quad which had to be reduced to 5km due to fog.  Rowers enjoyed a variety of weather conditions on each of the race days. They experienced calm, to parallel waves to calm but foggy.

It was the first coastal regatta for all of the competitors and, as is typical at coastal rowing events, the competitors and organisers faced their fair share of the unexpected, especially at the finish line. In the final of the men’s single Chile’s Edison Azurmendi Poveda’s boat broke 50m from the beach. Azurmendi didn’t let opportunity go by and jumped into the water to swam to the finish. He ended up in a sprint to the line with Venezuela’s Escobar Wilmer. Azurmendi got there just .02 of a second ahead of Wilmer to secure the bronze medal.

“The most important outcome was  the satisfaction with the team, the facilities and the regatta circuit,” says technical organiser and President of the South American Rowing Confederation Raul Poletti. Poletti is hoping that coastal rowing will now be included in next year’s Beach Games, the ODESUR Beach Games in December 2015.

Results: http://www.bolivarianosplaya2014.pe/REM/

2015 World Rowing Coastal Championships details.