Fixed-seat rowing in Newfoundland is very much a localized sport. Yes, there are some other versions elsewhere on the planet, but none identical to that which is played out on the waters of Placentia, Harbour Grace and St. John’s each year. And even allowing for every variety, the number of world-wide fixed-seat participants is miniscule compared to those involved in sliding-seat rowing.
But the members of the m5 crew, which set a new women’s course record at the Royal St. John’s Regatta at Quidi Vidi Lake this summer, have shown their talents translate very well into a world-class rowing event that might be seen — at least for some of them — as being a little outside of their fixed-seat comfort zone.
Last weekend, the m5 crew, which consists of stroke oar Katie Wadden, Alyssa Devereaux, Jane Brodie, Nancy Beaton, Amanda Ryan and Amanda Hancock, joined coxswain Dean Hammond, to participate in the 2018 World Masters Rowing Regatta in Sarasota, Fla., and finished in the top three of all six events in which they participated.
All were sliding-seat races, ranging from those involving two rowers to a couple with eight in the boat.
None were of the six-seat variety featured at Quidi Vidi.
The Newfoundlanders’ participation was never really planned. It came about when they took a break from their local training this past spring to travel Sarasota. But they didn’t take time off from rowing altogether, getting in some spins at the local sliding-seat club and in doing so, impressing a local coach, a former Olympian, who suggested they should return for the World Masters.
His read of their skills proved accurate. The m5 rowers’ total medal haul at the world event consisted of three silvers and three bronze.
One of the silvers came in the women’s coxed eights A event, where the m5 crew joined with two other St. John’s-based rowers — Hilary Sinclair of the Regatta runner-up Cahill crew, and Rebecca Eastman from the Avalon (sliding-seat) Rowing Club — to finish just over 1.3 seconds behind the winner.
Another second-place finish was delivered by Brodie and Devereaux — who last trained as a pair as sliding-seat rowers for the 2009 Canada Games — in the women’s A coxless pair, while the third was delivered in the women’s B eights.
The latter saw Wadden, Beaton, Brodie and Hancock join St. John’s native Siobhan Duff, now a Tennessee resident, and two of Duff’s teammates from the Lookout Rowing Club in Chattanooga in a boat steered by Hammond. This time, the winning margin was just a bit more than 1.2 seconds.
The bronze medals came in the women’s A doubles (Ryan, Sinclair), women’s coxed fours (Wadden, Devereaux, Brodie, Hancock and Hammond) and women’s coxless fours (Wadden, Beaton, Ryan, Devereaux).
Even though it was a third-place result, the coxless fours looked like it might deliver a gold medal for the Newfoundlanders, but a collision just metres from the finish line prevented that from happening, leaving the members of the team uninjured but off the top of the podium.
