Olympic Rowing Guide

THE TIMES Guide to the Games HISTORY ONE TO WATCH BRITISH HOPE VENUE 16 Katherine Grainger Has won gold at the World The popularity of rowing in England grew hugaly after the introduction of the annual Boat Race between Oxtord and Cambridge universities in 1829. The sport has been a feature of the Olympics since 1900 Mahé Drysdale (New Zealand) The tive-times workd champlon single sculler will be hoping to improve on the Championships six tirmes. After taking bronze he won in Beijing in 2008, He will compete against Alan Campbell, Great Britain's leading single sculler Eton Dorney, Buckinghamshire ROWING Dorney Lake was purpose-built as an eight-lane rowing course by Eton College, The centre will host all the rowing events, as well as the cance sprint races silver at the past three Games, she is paired with Anna Watkins for the wornen's double sculls this summer July 28 - Aug 4 COMPETITORS 550 (353 men, 197 women) MOST MEDALS 1st East Germany 2nd Unitod States 3rd Great Britain MEDAL EVENTS 14 33 7 31 31 22 24 20 10 HOW IT WORKS All events are held on a six-lane, 2,000-metre course over eight days. Crews progress through the preliminary heats, a repechage (second-chance round), the semi-finals and the finals OLYMPIC CLASSES Sculling One oar in cach hand BOAT LENGTH MINIMUM BOAT WEIGHT CLASS EVENTS Single sculls Men, women 8.2m 14kg Double sculls Men, women 10.4m 27kg Lightweight men Lightweight women Quadruple sculls Man, women 13.4m 52kg Sweep rowing One oar hold in two hands BOAT LENGTH MINIMUM BOAT WEIGHT Coxswains Responsible for steering and co-ordinating boats in the eights events, a cox must weigh a minimum of 55kg for men, 50kg for women. All other rowing boats are steered by a rudder controlled by one of the rowers CLASS EVENTS Coxless pair Men, women 10.4m 27kg Coxless four Men, lightweight men 13.4m 50kg Eight Men, women 19m 98kg 25km/h Lightweight categories: maximum weight for men is 72.5kg, 59kg for women. A tearn's average weight cannot exceed 70kg and 57kg respectively Top speed reached by men's eights THE COURSE Finish ine- -Warm-up channel Main lake is 2,200m long Eight lanes- (six used) Start line SAMAMAI Next wook: Sailing 500m 1,000m 1,500m 2,000m TACTICS Boat speeds vary greatly within races, ranging betweon 30 and 50 strokes per minute Crews row fastost in the opening 500 metres af the race, to give them the best strategic advantage. They buld up lactic acid, which they can work off in the middle 1,00 metres, during which they ease off, to save the energy to use in the final 500 metres FINISH