Next weekend, on February 17/18, 2018, this year's "World Rowing Indoor Championships" will take place in the event arena of TC Williams High School in Alexandria/Virginia as part of the "Erg Sprints". Among the more than 2,300 participants are also twelve athletes from the Concept2 Team Germany. For 36 years the "CRASH-B SPRINTS" in Boston/Massachusetts were the unofficial World Championships. Through the newly formed partnership between World Rowing, the world federation FISA, and the company Concept2 these title fights now also get an internationally recognized title and format.
This partnership was the logical consequence after the successful presentation of the Indoor Rowing at the 2017 World Games in Wroclaw, Poland. It is also a recognition of the tremendous growth and development of indoor rowing as a discipline in the sport of rowing.
The choice of venue fell on Alexandria, a city in Virginia, on the east coast of the USA, just south of Washington DC. The local orga team can draw on 32 years of experience in hosting an excellent indoor rowing event with their "Erg Sprints".
Also this year Concept2 Germany has advertised and organized a trip to these global title fights. Boris Orlowski will once again lead Concept2 Team Germany as team manager and head coach. Six of his athletes stood at the top of the podium at the German Indoor Rowing Championships on February 4 in Essen Kettwig this year. Luisa Neerschulte of Münster will compete as the title holder in the women's open class. Cosima Clotten (Neusser RV) will compete in the lightweight junior class, Max von Bülow from Oldenburg in the lightweight junior class and Floyd Benedikter (RV Münster) in the open junior class. In the Masters, 55-year-old Josef Reiter from Vilshofen and 75-year-old Christian Sommer from Dresden will be rowing for the medals as title holders. The team also includes a defending champion from last year. Matthias Schömann-Finck from Saarbrücken has already beaten the competition of the 30 to 39-year-old lightweight rowers several times on the Concept2 Rowing Ergometer and has also earned his merits on the water, both nationally and internationally.
On Thursday, the Concept2 Team Germany will set off from various German airports. From Amsterdam they will fly together to the USA. Team manager Boris Orlowski, who has taken on this task for the 21st time, is also entering completely new territory. "I am excited to see how the city, the location and the new format will be received by the athletes, coaches, spectators and, last but not least, the media! Our team is well positioned and certainly good for a medal or two."
Even those who are not on site can follow the races via webstreaming or live results. World Rowing (FISA) offers the service here.
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© World Rowing © Boris Orlowski
Source: German Rowing Association
Published on: 15 February 2018