The 2022 edition of the World Rowing Masters Regatta took place on September 7th to 11th in Libourne, France at the Dagueys Nautical Center, a beautiful eight-lane course that has hosted many French Rowing Championships but for some reason has yet to see much international activity. A total of 4,362 entries were made by 713 clubs from all over the world, resulting in over 600 races – all straight finals – taking place during the course of these five days. Bev Reid, Bernarda Elizondo (me) and Dan Bartlett participated in this regatta, this time with the luxury of having our dear coach Gary Anness join us.
Bev and I arrived late on Monday and dedicated all of Tuesday and Wednesday morning to getting to know the venue, having a couple of training session on the Filippi double and single we rented and getting used to the traffic patterns on the course. The evenings were spent relaxing at the lovely flat we rented in the centre of Libourne, grocery shopping or dining at a bistro with great food and a fabulous view of the Isle and Dordogne rivers.
Racing started for the Poplar contingent on Wednesday afternoon with Bev and I racing on the WD 2x. Gary and Dan surprised us by arriving just in time to see us off the pontoon. What a wonderful surprise and extra motivation to give it all! We came in second place with a very satisfactory time, placed sixth out of 76 boats and were the fastest British crew. Not bad for our fourth race together.
With that result in mind morale was high on Thursday when my turn came to race on the WC 1x. Unfortunately my third place was not the result I was hoping for. Despite my best efforts the WD 1x on Friday was not better. We are competitive creatures, we wouldn’t be there otherwise and so the disappointment of not getting the results I expected hurt, a lot. Luckily we are also part of a team. I may have raced on a single but I wasn’t alone. My teammates and coach helped me acknowledge my feelings, absorb the lessons and use my frustrations as fuel for the next races. You only fail if you don’t get up and keep fighting, we must never forget that.
Next race: Dan’s C 1x a couple of hours later. It almost didn’t happen as a week before this moment Dan was not sure he would be able to travel and did not have a boat and blades to race with. Fortunately things worked out and, using an overweight boat that he could only try once he sculled a splendid race and closed his regatta season with a first place and a big beautiful medal. What a pleasure it was, seeing a training partner reap the rewards of his efforts at an event of this calibre. A pleasure and an inspiration for the rest of us.
Our participation concluded with Bev and I on the WC 2x. We set off to the race start inspired and ready to make every stroke count, however this has definitely not been my best event as I made a rookie mistake, changed the way I do starts and missed the first three strokes. Horror after such a blunder was quickly set aside, we reacted, focused and sculled a furious but controlled race where we started last and finished 1,36 second before the first place. So many lessons learnt and so much gratitude to Bev for her calm, team spirit and kind words!
The level of this regatta, the successes and failures, the profound lessons learnt and the opportunity to get to know each other better made of this event an experience I will never forget. I think I speak for my teammates when I say that we cannot wait for the next season to begin and we have already started preparing for it. It will be an arduous journey but one definitely well worth it.
