Jul
25
Written by:
News Editor
Sunday, July 25, 2010 5:50 PM
story and photo by Clint Davies
The times and total points at the first-ever Skills Competition in rowing at a BC Summer Games were often so close that scores needed to be re-checked and double-checked by the skilled volunteers at the Fort Langley venue.
After Friday’s competitions, Vancouver and Vancouver Island seemed to be on a tear, allowing only one other zone — Fraser Valley — to win a single medal. Saturday continued to be almost a carbon copy of the previous day’s results, with Vancouver Island and Vancouver again allowing only one medal to be won by another zone – again, Fraser Valley.
Understandably, when the results showed the Okanagan Zone 2 team had earned a first-place finish on Sunday, a jubilant response was heard from the teams and spectators on shore.
Lauren Glanfield was the volunteer responsible for assigning final medal standings after her son Joel had input all the course umpires’ score sheets. The racing and skills umpires are officials certified by Rowing Canada, several of whom have had Olympic judging experience in the past.
Judges & Okanagan’s Jaret Boileau & Steven Giddens
The skills portion of the rowing competition adds the element of finely tuned expertise into what would otherwise be a series of pure speed races. In Bedford Basin at Fort Langley, where the mighty Fraser River lends a portion of its strong current to the deceivingly calm channel, boaters are asked to do difficult manoeuvres and are observed very closely by the expert umpires.
The manoeuvres include: wide turns around anchored markers, precision starting and emergency stopping, figure 8s, and rowing hard, then measured gliding (upstream!) doing a very difficult back and lock maneuver at 90 degrees to the river’s current.
Fraser Valley’s mixed quad skulls holding fast in an emergency stop procedure
Having rowing competitors from all over B.C. was a pre-requisite of getting rowing included in the Games, and two people who know this all too well are Jack and Brenda Jenkins of 100 Mile House.
The Cariboo-North East’s team has two Laurens and two Jenkins. L1 is Lauren Sortome and L2 is Lauren Runge. They are coached by two Jenkins, Jack and Brenda, who run the one-year-old rowing team at Mile 108. Another coincidence is that Lauren and Lauren each have a brother named Connor.
L1 and L2
Two of Zone 3, Fraser Valley team’s competitors, Alex Lawrie and Cole Steere, were called in to extra service when they pulled a potentially dangerous, partially-sunken log from the river and prevented it from continuing toward the competitors and umpires on the water downstream.
Alex and Cole with log
The men’s double pairing of Sam Cato and Jacob Lunter had to make a hasty retreat to the safety of the dock when they discovered, to their dismay, that the keel had come loose, releasing a large pin that exposed a half-inch hole in the bottom of their boat, which was filling with water and sinking fast.
They were given a new boat and headed back onto the water none the worse for the close call, to go on to win bronze in their event.
Guthrie with men’s doubles medalists
At the medals ceremony, Guthrie Hurd, a Langley hometown athlete, was the medal presenter. He was very well qualified to do so, as he had been a competitive rower for Simon Fraser University and also represented Canada at the World Championships in Austria in 2008.
Pic - Guthrie Hurd, alongside the medalists from mixed quads
RESULTS SUMMARY
Women’s Double Sculls
Gold – Alyssa Herman and Kendra Penderson, Delta Zone 4
Silver – Christy Scholten and Stacy Kosteckyi, Vancouver Island, Zone 6
Bronze – Emma Armstrong and Devon Weaden, Okanagan, Zone 2
Men’s Double Sculls
Gold – Alex Lawrie and Jake Elward, Fraser Valley, Zone 3
Silver – Lance Bai and Matthew Lawrence, Vancouver Island, Zone 6
Bronze – Sam Cato and Jacob Lunter, Vancouver, Zone 5
Mixed Quadruple Sculls
Gold – Devon Weaden, Emma Armstrong, Steven Giddens, Jaret Boileau, Megan Johansen, Okanagan Zone 2
Silver – Mackenzie Baxfield, Vada Hayes, Alex Lawrie, Jake Elward, Cole Steere, Fraser Valley Zone 3
Bronze – Sam Cato, Jacob Lunter, Ellen Gleadow, Amelie Hill, Chloe Noel, Vancouver Zone 5