Coliseum Sprints - Final 2020 Regatta
Strokes Admin
Well that day of racing was almost a perfect metaphor for 2020. Held on Saturday December 12, the Strokes hosted their final internal race of the year - Coliseum Sprints - at the Oakland Estuary basin. It started off a beautiful, warmish day with flat water, then the winds kicked up and blew us off our designated course. After a bit of scrambling, we shifted the race course and distance and finished off our day racing in front of the boathouse. Not perfect, but the athletes adjusted and got to it! (Clouds and sky pictured here are the end of the day vs the beginning of the day).
In the end the Strokes had a great final 2020 race on Saturday. The Coliseum Sprints were fast and furious races that necessitated fast starts, high rates, and gutsy sprints. We saw so many great performances and we were all proud to watch the rowers experience their very first head to head regatta.
We branded our final race of the year as the “Coliseum Sprints”. Why “Sprints”? Because the race course is 1000 meters long, a breeze compared to last month’s 4000 meter long Tail of the Turkey. Why “Coliseum”? Because you can see the Oakland Coliseum from the race course. (...and we don’t care what the stadium is officially called now, it will always be the Oakland Coliseum in our hearts). The race started in the middle of San Leandro Bay and race towards the boathouse.
The Strokes high school rowing team has been able to race throughout the year and we are now looking forward to hopefully matching up against some of the other fast Bay Area rowing teams in 2021! Based on the weekend’s races, the coaches are excited to see our athletes develop their skills and fitness throughout the spring and see how fast we can get.
Results for the racing can be found in the link below. Note that races after 10:35am were not timed, but the order of finish is noted. Click Here for Results
