We loaded up our boats on Wednesday, and of course they were thoroughly cleaned and checked beforehand! On Thursday we set off, the bus was loaded, the last check was made to make sure we had packed everything and, as promised by the weather service, it was already raining. It was supposed to stay like this for the whole weekend.
The journey to Brandenburg took 2 1/2 hours this time, due to lots of roadworks and sometimes very heavy rain! Nevertheless, it was great fun, everyone was in a good mood and excited about what awaited us. Once we arrived at the regatta course, we unloaded our boat material, pavilion and beer tent sets (all in the rain) and then drove to the gymnasium (10' by car). There we all made ourselves at home and went back to the regatta course to moor the boat and have dinner. There were sandwiches "with bread" and something for everyone - wieners, bockwurst, crackers, boulettes and much more.
When we got back to the hall, we were able to let off some steam, then we had a team meeting and went to bed at 9.30pm. Unfortunately, it was well past midnight before the last of us slept. The next morning we were woken up at 5.00 a.m. because the regatta started at 8.00 a.m. and as we wanted to have breakfast before our race, we had to do it early. The "little ones" had a little longer, as they were taken to the regatta course later by Alex. The start for the mixed four of the 13/14 age group was at 8.11 a.m. Ineke Teichmann, Florian Schölzel, Max Peters, Amarylla Leubner and cox Vivien Weber started for the RRVK. It rained all morning and unfortunately did not stop during the course of the day. Despite the difficult conditions, the team set a new best time! The foursome finished in a very good 3rd place in their division, 10 seconds behind 2nd place. In the end, they were 19 hundredths short of reaching the A final! After the race, the "big ones" first went to the gym to have a rest and take a shower! At 10.58 a.m. the mixed four age group 12/13 had to start. Paul Seifert, Carolin Fiedler, Chelsea Schmidt, Till Kleditzsch and cox Andre' Saller rowed here. There was still water from above, from the side and from below. Our foursome had a few difficulties, but reached the finish well and almost overtook the Brandenburg boat from Frankfurt/Oder, which had started far ahead of them! They were also able to row to 3rd place with their time. In the overall standings, they came 10th and therefore also made it to the B final of the national regatta, which was held on Sunday, and after both boats had completed their races, we had lunch together and returned to the gym. The athletes were able to shower, hang up their wet clothes and rest. The latter took about 10 minutes, then it was time to play. Some played with their mobile phones, others with a ball! At 5 p.m. there was another team meeting, the teams for the additional competition were announced and a few more stations were practised. Unfortunately, we still couldn't go outside as it was still raining heavily. We drove back to the regatta course at around 5.30 pm, as the award ceremony was scheduled for 7 pm and we wanted to have dinner beforehand. There was again a good choice of food, so there was something for everyone, including fruit and vegetables to keep you healthy. The award ceremony then began almost on time, initially in light rain, which unfortunately became heavier as the event progressed. As we Brandenburgers didn't get to the grandstand in time, we didn't sit under the roof! That was very wet! Nevertheless, the mood of the rowing youths was very good and everyone presented their new and old battle cries! After the first day of competition, the Brandenburg rowing youth finished in 4th place overall.
After the award ceremony, we went back to the hall and went to bed again at 9.30 pm. On Saturday, the first group, who had to be in the stands at 7.30 a.m., had to get up early again as they were scheduled to leave for breakfast at 6.15 a.m.. The second group had a relaxed start to the morning, as they did not have to be in the stands until 10.30am. The athletes had to complete eight exercises in around 2 hours, including a knowledge test, rope walk, standing long jump, medicine ball toss, snake run, star run, target throw and sack race. We had practised diligently in the club beforehand and this paid off. Seven of the ten Rüdersdorf athletes were able to win with their teams. Unfortunately, not all ten were in the same team! The others took 2 third places and a 5th place. While the weather was still quite stable in the morning for the first group, it unfortunately started to rain again at the start of the second group! After everyone had finished, we went for lunch and returned to the gym. We spent the free afternoon in the cinema with popcorn, nachos and cola and watched "Transformers - the last knight". Afterwards we quickly returned to the regatta course, some of us went for dinner, others
went straight to the grandstand because we didn't want to sit in the rain again.
The carers' races were due to start at 6.45 pm. 33 teams had registered, which was a new record number of participants!!! Unfortunately, the boat of the Bavarian Rowing Youth was missing in the first division, so that the races only started 30 minutes late. While the first divisions started with 3 - 4 boats, the last two races saw 7 and 9 boats respectively take to the course! It was a great sight and everything went off without any boat damage. Then the award ceremony for the additional competition could finally begin, and the first and second places were honoured in the persistent rain that had accompanied us for the last two days. In contrast to previous years, this time there were medals and certificates for the winners and runners-up! Brandenburg took 4th place in the national ranking.
The children of the RRVK could actually have slept a little longer on Sunday, as our races were not on the programme until late in the morning. But they, like everyone else in the hall, were woken up by the hall ventilation at around 4.30am! Unfortunately, this ventilation could not be switched off. The only thing that helped was to put headphones on their ears and switch off the background noise with music! Our children got up at around 7.30am, packed their things, Till and Tim collected our washing line, which had served us well over the last few days, and then it was off to the regatta course. After breakfast together, the preparation phase for the races of the national regatta over 1000 metres began. We checked all the screws, nuts, cleats and outriggers once again. The parents of some of the athletes also arrived to cheer on the children and provide moral support! The immediate preparation for the competition began with a final discussion about race tactics and technique. Then came the warm-up and the boat was brought into the water! After they had left the jetty, we could no longer help them, they were on their own and certainly very excited! For Chelsea, Caro and Andre in particular, it was their first time taking part in such a big regatta. They had the 4th fastest 3000m time in the 5-boat field. How far forward can they go? Will they only finish 5th in the end? These were the questions that were going through my mind! The foursome had found a very good course with starting lane 6, as they had a bit of slipstream in the last 200 metres. But at 500 metres you could already see that they were not rowing at the back of the field, but were fighting for a front position. Paul described their race like this: 'We had a very good start, the boat was well aligned, we were initially able to take the lead, at around 500 metres we had a few steering difficulties, so we touched the buoys. In the final sprint we were able to catch up with the leaders again, but at the finish no one in the three boats knew who was in which position. Which place would it be? the first three boats crossed the finish line within a second of each other, so the photo finish had to decide! 6 tenths separated us from the gold medal and the third boat was only 2 tenths slower than us! At first, the athletes couldn't believe that it was enough for a medal! We coaches, parents and supervisors were already very happy, but the athletes were still sitting in their boat sceptically! Later, of course, they were overjoyed, although they were already arguing with themselves about where they had left those few moments.
After the race, we all went for lunch together, as the "big ones" didn't start until
at 2.15 pm. After lunch, the boat was rebuilt. We had two boats with us, but
both teams were more comfortable with the Wintech four, so we decided to use the boat twice!
At 1 p.m., we met in the grandstand for a final race briefing. After that, the team warmed up before heading out onto the water as the drizzle set in again. Max described their race like this: 'We had a good start and were in a front position. Our direct opponent started his intermediate sprint faster than us and pulled away a little. We were able to fight our way back over the last 300 metres, but were a good half a length behind. In the final sprint, our team came on strong, so that there was a tough battle for victory in the last few metres.
"Unfortunately" we came second, 11 hundredths behind!!!
There's a nice saying: "Second place is the first loser!" That's how the athletes felt at first, as they were desperate to win after narrowly missing out on the A final. Later, however, they were able to celebrate their second place! The spectators in the stands saw an exciting and fantastic race and would certainly have liked both teams to win!
After the race, the boat was prepared and the boat trailer was loaded. Then we went to the final award ceremony. The Brandenburg team also took 4th place in the national ranking at the national regatta. So we kept this place in the overall ranking.
Thomas Bode
Rüdersdorfer Ruderverein Kalkberge e.V.