15 November 2011

Rowing course opens

| johnboy
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The National Capital Authority is celebrating getting the Lake Burley Griffin rowing course re-opened after the floods of 12 months ago:

The course was rebuilt following consultation with stakeholder groups.

“We received valuable feedback from lake users during the design phase of the project. Additional markers were installed at the request of users to enable kayak sprinters to race on the course,” Mr Rake said.

Rowing Australia chief executive officer, Andrew Dee said the new rowing course will be used by Australian rowing representatives.

“Lake Burley Griffin is one of the best rowing training venues in the world. The new course will further enhance the capacity of our athletes and coaches to prepare for next year’s London Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Mr Dee said.

Rowing ACT president, David Bagnall said the new course will also host national and local regattas.

“This course is not only our principal training area, but also our regatta venue,” said Mr Bagnall.

“Lake Burley Griffin hosts eight regattas each year, and crews train on the course every day of the year. The new course will provide an even better experience for visiting and local crews,” he said.

The course is 1800m long, with seven lanes marked by buoys. Each buoy is anchored underwater, and connected with longitudinal cables.

The design and construction of the course cost $150,000.

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Holden Caulfield5:13 pm 15 Nov 11

Fair enough. I haven’t competed in rowing since I was at high school and that was quite some time ago, haha. We were blouses anyway and only competed over 1000km back in the day.

I think it was originally envisioned that the rowing course would sit in central/east basin, I guess it would have had to run from commonwealth park to kingston (I’m not sure of the details). Unfortunately there is no soft lake shore to absorb the wash that is generated by water craft (especially the umpire’s boat), instead the hard edges reflect everything very well, which makes racing very unpleasant.

A full 2000m course would be better, but the 1800 isn’t too bad, and it’s not that often that you’ll do a full 2000m effort in training anyway (unless training habits have changed since I last did any competitive rowing 7 or 8 years ago).

Holden Caulfield1:04 pm 15 Nov 11

nescius said :

Yes it would be better, unfortunately a 2000m course doesn’t fit into an 1800m space (and other sections of the lake are not really suitable for racing).

I figured that was the case, but it’s a bit of hamstring isn’t it? Sally Robbins might approve, I guess. You’d reckon that last 200m when your lungs are about to pack it in would be kinda useful for training purposes.

Must admit I hadn’t realised the course was only 1800m.

Holden Caulfield said :

1800m.

Wouldn’t it be better to be 2000m if it really is “one of the best rowing training venues in the world”?

Yes it would be better, unfortunately a 2000m course doesn’t fit into an 1800m space (and other sections of the lake are not really suitable for racing).

Holden Caulfield11:20 am 15 Nov 11

1800m.

Wouldn’t it be better to be 2000m if it really is “one of the best rowing training venues in the world”?

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