West of England IRC - June 9 2001
West Somerset Sports & Leisure Centre, Minehead
The first Inaugural Indoor Rowing Competition to be held in Minehead was hosted by West Somerset Sports and Leisure Centre and provided local gym users and rowers a chance to see some of the UK's finest athletes competing on the Concept 2 machines. 43 brave individuals rowed in the 2000 metre event whilst 18 in the 500 metre event provided success for the organisers ( who are already looking to increase the entrants and prizes for next years event which will be held on Saturday 8th June 2002).Weighing in caused rumours of bribing the officials with one young man stripping down to his track suit trousers to impress the female member of staff and running round the outside of the centre for 30 minutes with a final weight loss of 2 pounds. This caused such a stir with the staff that next year we may need to draw straws to see which female staff member gets that position.
The highlight of the day was the smashing of the current British record for 40-49 LWT category by Graham Price of Newark RC. He actually held the old record at 6.26.7 and beat this with a new time of 6.25.5. Other great 2000m times were posted throughout the day with Lucy Clarke only 12 seconds off the current British record held by Helena Malencuk to name just one. The event times were staggering with Chris Roe completing the 2000m in a fantastic 6.16.6 in the HWT 19-29 category and Richard Wilder only 5 seconds off this pace in the LWT 19-29 category.
Of course much attention was aimed at the 70-99 age category with only 1 male entry. William Harvey at 82 years old completed the 2000m in 9.05 which would have taken the British title had he been a LWT. Maybe next year!
The 500m event was a testosterone induced dash with 13 male entrants and 5 female entrants. The top 7 male entries all made it in under 1.30 with Jon Goodall winning in 1.21.7 and in the ladies Anna Bailey sailed home in 1.39.9 showing the younger competitors that in this high impact sprint age is immaterial.
- Neil Hutchinson, Organiser
| 2000 Metres | ||
|---|---|---|
| Women | ||
| 13-18 | ||
| 1 | Lucy Clarke | 7:50.1 |
| 30-39 L | ||
| 1 | Rhona Price | 8:09.6 |
| 2 | Pat Penny | 8:12.5 |
| 30-39 | ||
| 1 | Wendy Boyland | 7:52.0 |
| 2 | Debbie Dennis | 8:06.1 |
| 40-49 | ||
| 1 | Caroline Dawson | 7:52.2 |
| 50-59 L | ||
| 1 | Janet Parker | 8:11.7 |
| 50-59 | ||
| 1 | Anna Bailey | 7:23.0 |
| 2 | Jean Curnow | 9:02.3 |
| 60-69 L | ||
| 1 | Julia Fox | 9:28.2 |
| Men | ||
| 13-18 L | ||
| 1 | David Martin | 7:08.6 |
| 13-18 | ||
| 1 | Bradley Whale | 6:37.1 |
| 2 | Alistair Mackie | 7:16.3 |
| 19-29 L | ||
| 1 | Richard Wilder | 6:21.7 |
| 2 | Richard Jenkins | 7:20.9 |
| 3 | Dan Lugspen | 7:36.2 |
| 19-29 | ||
| 1 | Chris Roe | 6:16.6 |
| 2 | Kieran Lilley | 6:43.4 |
| 3 | Andrew Pearse | 7:03.8 |
| 4 | Sam Williams | 7:03.8 |
| 30-39L | ||
| 1 | Adrian Wells | 6:36.4 |
| 2 | Jason Prosser | 6:51.7 |
| 3 | Adrian Byrne | 7:06.7 |
| 30-39 | ||
| 1 | Tony Watts | 6:52.3 |
| 2 | Mark Thomas | 7:08.1 |
| 3 | Andrew Turner | 7:09.5 |
| 40-49L | ||
| 1 | Graham Price | 6:25.5 |
| 2 | Jeff Knight | 7:16.8 |
| 40-49 | ||
| 1 | Marcus Harvey | 6:21.6 |
| 2 | Mark Gritten | 6:46.2 |
| 3 | Stephen Pemberthy | 6:47.7 |
| 4 | Neil Chamberlain | 6:54.2 |
| 5 | John Gosling | 6:56.3 |
| 6 | Kevin Penney | 6:59.0 |
| 7 | Jochen Langbein | 7:07.2 |
| 50-69L | ||
| 1 | George Meredith | 6:51.8 |
| 2 | Roger Bangay | 7:19.0 |
| 3 | Tony Holman | 7:20.5 |
| 4 | Peter Mander | 8:07.7 |
| 50-69 | ||
| 1 | John Spencer | 6:47.0 |
| 2 | James Parker | 7:11.4 |
| 3 | Robin Phillips | 7:39.7 |
| 70+ | ||
| 1 | William Harvey | 9:05.0 |
| 500 metres | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Women | ||||
| 1 | Anna Bailey | 50-59 | Hwt | 1:39.9 |
| 2 | Wendy Boyland | 30-39 | Hwt | 1:44.0 |
| 3 | Rhona Price | 30-39 | Lwt | 1:52.3 |
| 4 | Pat Penny | 30-39 | Lwt | 1:53.7 |
| 5 | Debbie Dennis | 30-39 | Hwt | 1:57.9 |
| Men | ||||
| 1 | Jon Goodall | 19-29 | Hwt | 1:21.7 |
| 2 | Stephen Hammond | 30-39 | Hwt | 1:22.2 |
| 3 | Kieran Lilley | 19-29 | Lwt | 1:24.0 |
| 4 | Richard Wilder | 19-29 | Lwt | 1:26.4 |
| 5 | Graham Price | 40-49 | Lwt | 1:26.7 |
| 6 | Kevin Penny | 40-49 | Hwt | 1:28.2 |
| 6 | Stephen Pemberthy | 40-49 | Hwt | 1:28.2 |
| 8 | Jason Prosser | 30-39 | Lwt | 1:30.8 |
| 9 | Erskine Fenty | 40-49 | Hwt | 1:31.2 |
| 10 | Jochen Langbein | 40-49 | Hwt | 1:33.8 |
| 11 | George Meredith | 50-59 | Lwt | 1:34.1 |
| 12 | Adrian Byrne | 30-39 | Lwt | 1:34.3 |
| 13 | Tony Holman | 50-69 | Lwt | 1:38.3 |
| 14 | David Martin | 13-18 | Lwt | 1:38.4 |
