Virtual indoor rowing qualifiers spring to action in Europe and Oceania

The European Continental Qualification event is hosted by British Rowing and is a part of the British Rowing Indoor Championships, which is also being held online. Entries were received from 42 countries with Great Britain at the top of the list, followed by Italy, Hungary and Germany. The total number of races will be 2520 – a record for any British Rowing Indoor Championships.

Across the world, the Oceania Continental Qualification, hosted by the New Zealand Indoor Rowing Association has seen a tremendous entry from Tahiti. Event organiser Eric Murray, says the push for rowing in Tahiti has been inspired by Kevin Scott. Read more about indoor rowing in Tahiti here: http://www.worldrowing.com/news/world-rowing-virtual-indoor-sprints-covers-the-world .

While the Oceania qualifier has not secured top national team rowers from New Zealand and Australia – most likely due to the timing within the southern hemisphere training schedule – the European event will see top international names vie for places at the 2021 World Rowing Indoor Championships.

In the men’s openweight 2000m race Bartosz Zablocki from Poland has entered. Zablocki won the 2017 CRASH-B Sprints in the United States with a time of 5:45.8. Also challenging in the men’s openweight category is Anton Bondarenko of Ukraine. Bondarenko rows for the Ukranian national team and has posted a 5:49 finish on the indoor rowing machine.

In the women’s openweight 2000m race Sophie Souwer of the Netherlands is one of the top names. Souwer holds a bronze medal from the 2019 World Rowing Championships in the women’s quadruple sculls. It will be a family affair as Souwer’s partner Martino Goretti of Italy’s national team will compete in the men’s lightweight 2000m event.

The European event will be ‘live streamed’ with a race tracker system developed by Time Team. Competitors are able to connect their Concept2 rowing machine via a cable to the Time Team technology system on their computer. During the event, competitors will see where they are compared to the other athletes. This will be displayed on the rowing machine itself – with the athlete in first place, the rower directly ahead of the competitor and the rower directly behind them. Spectators can watch the racing online where all competitors’ positions will be displayed.

For more information about the European Continental qualifier and the British Rowing Indoor Championships, click here. For the schedule of events, please click here.

For more information about the Oceania Continental qualifier and the New Zealand Indoor Rowing Association, click here.