Snappy Exit

So it looks as though the schedule for the World Championships next year has been changed.  Gone are the Men’s C-4 and K-4 500m and the Woman’s K-4 1000m.  This seems like a decent idea to me as participation is pretty low in the woman’s K-4 and men’s C-4.  I don’t really agree with taking out the 500m K-4 for men as I think its a great race, but I am all for changing things up a little. 

Here’s the real kicker though.  There are three additions to the program next year – 4 x 200m relays for the singles events.  Now, I was lucky enough to witness this event in Duisburg (2002 or 2003 I cannot remember which) and here is how it works.  There are 4 teams per race.   Two members of each team line up 200m apart facing each other.  There are 4 automatic starting boots at each end.The race starts like a normal race with four athletes starting together and racing from the finish line to the 200m start.  As each team reaches the end, the boot for the next competitor on that team is dropped by an official.  The competitor then races from the 200m start to the finish.  Obviously, this repeats until the fourth competitor crosses the finish line, at which pint the race is over.

If you are a fan of 200m racing (which I personally am not – but to each his own) then this might sound exciting.  I guarantee you will be disappointed.  If we ignore the fact that there are very few countries that could put together a team of four excellent singles athletes (surely we could come up with four teams in each discipline to make for a competitive final), we are left with the serious problem of wash.  What you will see is a very competitive first leg, followed by a display of boatmanship, where the team that wins is the team that paddles best in the wash.  It is not pretty, it does not showcase the beauty of our sport, and I am willing to bet that the team that wins will win by a significant margin.  We will not see the excitement that I am sure the ICF hopes will lead to more TV coverage.

Now, I have said that I am not a fan of the 200m, but that doesn’t mean I am against changes in our sport or even against the 200m.  I see the value in having a race for sprinters and I certainly acknowledge the skill involved in racing it (one that I never had).  The 200m offers an opportunity to sprinters and showcases an entirely different aspect of our sport – and there is beauty in seeing the all out effort involved and the sheer power of the C-1 paddlers who can paddle 200m without ever having their bow touch the water.  I really don’t think;  however, that you will see anything like this in the relay.  It will be a hard fought, ugly battle with paddlers missing strokes and looking horrible.

Having said that, I have a responsibility as Chair of the Competition Committee for Canoe 09 to help ensure that this race goes off as smoothly as possible, whcih of couse I will do.  Perhaps I will be proven wrong and it will be a great addition to the program.  We shall see.  Your comments and suggestions are welcome…though they make take a few days to appear on the site.