Wordless Wednesday

Oars for skiff-racing Wicklow regatta

Wordless Wednesday is a group of bloggers who give words a rest once a week.

Girls talk skiff-racing in Ireland

Messing about in boats … Yesterday I met some girls and women who do just that. But they mess about in quarter tonne wooden rowing boats, using 16-foot (4.8m) oars to get out to sea in waves which could swamp other types of rowing boat.

Skiff-racing Wicklow Regatta August 1

I was at the Wicklow Regatta in Ireland yesterday, and the sun almost remembered to shine, almost. The crews – four people – race for distances between 700m and 2,700m. I was amazed to see the U-12 crew setting out, they barely looked big enough to get in the boat but once out, they skimmed the waves.

Training

Sarah Carroll, Renee Armstrong and Heidi Keogh from the Wicklow Rowing Club chatted with me after their races. The three started racing aged 13 – 14 and now compete in the U-18s and Junior races.  I thought training must involved weights and gym-work but it seems not.

“We just go out and do the course and most people do it every day but we (u-18s) take Saturday off,” Renee said. Heidi said doing well in a race is all about the first few seconds. The boats line up in front of the pier, each cox holds a long rope thrown down from the crowd and a bull-horn sounds for the start.

“It depends on the start,” she said. “It’s about where you start from, what berth you get. And it depends on the tide where you are, the tide and the wind.” Sarah explained that’s all decided in a draw using balls pulled out of a bag, so they have no choice in where to go. “It’s all very random,” she said.

Skills you need in a skiff

Surprisingly for such a tough sport, the three said they haven’t suffered any injuries. Heidi said the hardest thing to get right is the timing. “That’s hard, getting into the water and back out of the water at the same time as the rest of the people,” she said as they all laughed. “Other than that, it’s kind of Ok. It’s not as hard as you think it’s gonna be.” Sarah added: “Yeah, you have to get the timing. If you’re not in time (together) the boat rocks.”

Racing with ‘the boys’

Most of the races are single-sex but each age division has a mixed race. Sarah said it can be easier for girls to row in those teams. “The boys are bigger. They encourage us to keep going so we can row with them.” Speaking over each other, they said the power in a boat comes from the middle so the boys take that position in a mixed team which makes it easier for them. And, with great timing, The Boys appeared from the boat-room just then and the conversation disintegrated.

Getting ready to race Skiff-racing Wicklow Regatta Aug 1

You can read more about yesterday's races here in a piece I did for the Irish Times.

Canoeist is Sports Woman of the Month

Irish canoeist Jenny Egan won the monthly sports award for her silver medal at the 5,000m sprint canoe K1 at a World Cup in May. Egan already holds a silver from the 2005 World Junior Marathon Championships, and silver from the 5,000m at the Senior Sprint Canoe World Cup last year, only losing out by six seconds to Hungarian Renata Csay - ouch. For the record keepers among you, that the first medal for an Irish female sprint canoeist.

Her training session was described in one of the Irish papers as: 'training twice a day, doing 'three paddling sessions, three gym sessions, three swims and three runs every week'" That would be while completing an Athletic Therapy and Training course at university.

Jenny Egan pic Irish Canoe Union

Every month the The Irish Times/Irish Sports Council 'Sportswoman of the Month' goes to a woman who has gone above and beyond in her commitment to her chosen sport.

Egyptian rower Heba Ahmed

Heba Ahmed pic

France24 reported this week that Egyptian women are "out in force" at the Tahrir Square this week. And as today could be the most significant day in modern Egyptian history, it seems a good moment to post again about another inspiring woman from Egypt.

Heba Ahmed made it to the quarter- finals in the single-scull in Beijing - getting a raft of coverage for her clothing and her political stance in competing at all - but had earlier taken bronze at the All Africa Games.She was one of the first athletes to compete at an Olympics wearing a hijab.

Heba Ahmed, Beijing

Looking for recent reports of her competition didn't bring up much, the coverage is really dominated by the clothing issue once again. Fair enough, she didn't win gold but surely getting to the last 24 in any world competition deserves a small mention somewhere?

I posted here and here on some other Egyptian athletes.

Top Ten Inspiring Sports Women 2010

1922 Washington USA flickr

It's the time of year for polls and surveys and in that spirit I offer the women you loved the best on this blog. It's a tad unscientific as ISW only started at the end of May but Statcounter says these are the sports women you enjoyed reading about the most:

1. Caley Lewis, Australian Muay Thai fighter 
2. Zenyatta, American race-horse 
3. Jessica Kurten, Irish showjumper 
4. Marjan Kalhor, Iranian skier 
5. Melissa Ray, British Muay Thai fighter 
6. With this Ring - a film on Mary Kom and other Indian boxers
7. Dr Jessie Stone, American kayaker 
8. Irish Surf Kayak team - Aisling Griffin and Muireann Lynch 
9. Silken Laumann, Canadian rower  
10. Mischa Merz, Australian boxer 

You also rated this post 'Sweat and the City' on the four girls we'd really like to be. 

Did Statcounter miss any of your favourites?

Silken Laumann, Rower and Accident Survivor

A few weeks ago I posted on my choice of ‘Sweat and the City’ girls. A Canadian reader recommended some stars from her hometurf to add to the list.  And being a sucker for Overcoming Injury and Adversity stories I have to share the adventures of Silken Laumann with you.
Laumann was a rower in the 90s and retired with three Olympic medals. Her 1992 win came 78 days after her lower leg was shredded by another boat in training. Shredded; as in nerves and muscles gone, fibula broken. Laumann spent a month doing what the doctors said, then trained in a specially adapted boat. Even during the Olympics she was hobbling around on a cane. But she found the determination to power over the line for a bronze medal.

A Sports Illustrated article quoted her as saying:
“Rowing kept me honest. It's so black-and-white. You can't hide. Before '92 I was a strong person, but I wondered how strong I would be if something bad happened. Then something bad did happen and I didn't wallow in sorrow. I just figured, O.K., what do I do now? Sport strips you from all barriers, from all social conventions, and you see people for who they really are."

Do you know anyone else who steamed back from a nasty accident?

Pic from Sports Illustrated                              

Pic from Library and Archives Canada