23 February 2018

FISA has just announces new racing categories for master rowers, this to encourage more participation, FISA writes on its webpage. Ages 80-89 have now been divided up in four categories:

Category J will be athletes 80 years (or older)

Category K will be athletes 83 years (or older)

Category L will be athletes 86 (or older)

Category M will be athletes 89 (or older)

In a statement Sebastian Franke, FISA Masters Commission member, said: ‘The 80 years mark a threshold after which the athletes lose power even more quickly or simply are no longer able to race anymore. To give these athletes a chance to compete against their own age, rather than like in the past against younger athletes only was our motivation.’ Franke continued, ‘It also is intended to encourage club or composite crews from different age groups training and racing together.’

These new age categories will be implemented already at this year’s World Rowing Master Regatta in Sarasota-Bradenton in Florida, USA, on 27-30 September. The master athletes will be racing over a 1,000-metre distance, the same waters that saw rowers competing for the World Rowing Championships last year (though they were racing 2,000 metres).

FISA is expecting the number of master rowers to be higher this year in Sarasota-Bradenton than at the 2017 World Master Regatta on Lake Bled in Slovenia. Then a new record was set with 4,700 participating athletes.

The 2018 World Rowing Master Regatta has now opened for registration. Go here.

About the venue at Sarasota-Bradenton
Nathan Benderson Park was built to FISA racing standards and has 8 x 13.5-metre lanes. The race course specifications include 2,180 metres in length, 630 metres wide and on average 6 metres deep.

Nathan Benderson Park lake was created as a man-made borrow pit, spring fed with additional surface water holding capacity. The 161.8 hectares lake was previously used for mining sand and shell. Since then, the open pit was filled by the Cooper Creek drainage basin and the underground aquifer system.

The completed venue consists of a state of the art floating wave attenuator platform that doubles as a dedicated TV lane for broadcast requirements, exclusive 3-metre wide-paved cycle path for coaches.