Ideas on the layout of the champs races layout?

[theoriginalbowside]

HI,
I just want to see if anyone from other clubs has the same opinion as me the trying to squeeze heats & semi's & finals ,for what could be a rowers only event, into the first half or second half of a day seems cramped.
Most of the crampedness (I know that not a word) was resolved merely through there not being enough entries in some events.
What if there are a lot of entries and you have rowers expected to

1. Race a 2Km course
2. Get back to slipway
3. Get boat back to the rack
4. Drink/Eat/ Recover
5. Prep for next race
6. Warm Up
7. Get boat on water
8. Make you way up the the start doing a proper water warm-up
9. Get on stake boat for next race

All in the space of about 1Hr30mins.


There has got to be better layouts that can be used.
Like heats in the morning, semi's in the early afternoon and finals in the early evening.
This could give 3Hrs between each race for the athletes to recover propery.

Does any other country use our layout?

[strokeside]

3 hours between races is no problem as long as people are happy to only row one event a day. Most want do more. Looking at previous championship programmes, it looks like this year is the first time there was less than 2 hours between the different rounds. 1 hour 30 mins is too little.

[stonecold]

As strokeside points out, people wont be able to race more than one event if its spread out over morning, afternoon,evening times. I think 2 hours minimum is adequate time between each of heats/semis/finals. And most rowers are very fit people, they'll recover in time - everyone is in the same boat.

[radioactiveman]

theoriginal..,
You're right. I raised this question a few weeks back when I seen the timetable for the July champs.

rowireland.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=788

Imagine losing a champs cause the heat you were in was a ball buster while your closest rivals strolled through theirs.

Strokeside, Stonecold,

If you can go through the July timetable and tell me what events I would not be able to double up in if the timetable was morning heats, afternoon semis and finals in the evening.
Do the comparison for all grades. No athlete would have been stopped from entering mulitiple events due to the programme.
The programme is dated. There is no reason why the September Champs should not adopt a more international programme of racing.

[mhughes]

Radioactiveman....

"Imagine losing a champs cause the heat you were in was a ball buster while your closest rivals strolled through theirs."

You are making a strong argument for time-trials and seeding of heats not necessarily against the 2 hour gap.

I once won an Inter 8 event at Blesso and then turned the boat and went straight to the start of the Senior Pot with no gap.... Garda won that pot, we got a flyer, and were still in front at 1K. We were beaten by one of the best outfits that ever graced the water in this country and not because we had no gap..... We were just thrilled to be there. Something has changed for the worse.

[waughboy]

What about the idea of semis say the saturday and have the final the sunday? say have the inter 8 semi the sat morning and have the inter 4 heat in the sat afternoon and have the inter 8 final the sunday morning and inter 4 final the sunday afternoon?
Plenty of times between races. It might just restrict people to one grade but in fairness that is the majority of people anyways

[theoriginalbowside]

People say you won't be able to double up, but with the racing layout I described, and the Big Boats/Small Boats champs it would for example allow an inter rower to go for:
Inter 4's on Day 1 of Big Boat Champs
Inter 8's on Day 2 of Big Boat Champs
Inter 1x or 2x or 4x on Day 1 of Small Boat Champs
Inter 1x or 2x or 4x on Day 2 of Small Boat Champs

this gives a rower 4 different titles to race for in the one year.
Now if a rower thinks they're good enough, they can choose to row at a higher grade but would have to realize they may not be able to race their actual level too due to timing.

But my suggested layout could also create an equipment shortage if not planned properly, i.e. if all 4's races were on the same day and all 8's races on the other day. I guess there's always a downside to any proposed "improvement". Ah well.