Asia takes to the indoor rower for 2022 championships

The first ever Asian Rowing Virtual Indoor Championships took place last weekend after being cancelled the previous two years. The event featured an impressive entry list of 692.

Competing in 102 events, there were 19 countries taking part including Palestine, Vietnam, Macau, Iran, Pakistan, Bahrain, Lebanon, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, China, Singapore, Kuwait, Philippines, India, Malaysia, Japan, Iraq and Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s Chi Fung Chan set an Asian Championship record and scored the fastest 2000m time overall with a 6:12.0. Racing in the lightweight category, Chan’s time was faster than the winner of the men’s open category which was won by Omer Ismail Aldulaimi of Iraq in 6:18.2.  Chan also won his category at the British Rowing Indoor Championships held late last year.

The women’s open event was won by Kana Nishihara of Japan in 7:13.4, with the lightweight event won by Wong Sheung Yee of Hong Kong in 7:27.2.

One outstanding performance came in the lightweight women’s 60+ 500m event where the sole competitor, 93-year-old Poonchala Pradubpong of Thailand, finished in an impressive 4:00.2. The youngest competitor was a seven-year-old boy from China.

The biggest entries came in the junior events with the under 16 men 2000m having 39 entries and the under 16 women 31. The masters 30-39 men and women and the PR3 para races were also well represented. A number of Asian indoor records were set through the competition.

As a virtual event, competitors raced from wherever they saw fit with their race being live streamed and connected to others racing in the same event.  Racing started from 14:00 Hong Kong time in order to accommodate the time zones of West Asian region competitors who were five hours behind.

“There were many interesting locations from people erging in their own homes, to National Training Centres, to schools and rowing clubs in China, Vietnam and Japan,” says Technical Manager Chris Perry.  “Some 62 students from one public-private school system in the Shanghai area took part.

“Technically,” says Perry, “it was very challenging with so many competitors, time zones, internet strengths, language differences etc. Competitors had to work out how to conduct and upload video weigh-ins, how to connect their machines to the race system and how to stream the race video live at the same time from a separate device – like a mobile phone. Naturally there were a few glitches and unfortunately a few competitors could not start due to bad connections. Still most people managed to race.”

This has been an annual event for about 20 years, but was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid. “Virtual rowing is seen as a great way to fill the gap,” says Perry. “This is the first virtual one.”

Perry says he was surprised by the big response. “The potential to expand our sport via indoor rowing is huge. Virtual competition can also become a great e-sport event and I can foresee leagues and regional competitions getting more and more popular. There is still scope to further develop and improve the technology involved in virtual racing and I look forward to seeing this in the future.”

Relive the action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyMLztGXiOg

Results: https://regatta.time-team.nl/arvic/2022/results/events.php