2014 Gay Games Regatta proves to be medalicious!

It was a rather mild day for rowing on Sunday 10 August 2014 in Cleveland for the 2014 Gay Games Rowing Regatta. With partly cloudy skies, a slight breeze out of the southeast, and temperatures only peaking near 80 degrees Fahrenheit ( 27 Celsius) and the humidity at a relative low of 58%, rowers could focus on their races instead of heat exhaustion.

The 2014 Gay Games rowing event, originally planned as a 3200m. head race, was shortened to a side-by-side (Henley style) 1272m. sprint river race. The race start was up river and headed down river, through two major turns to finish in front of the Cleveland Rowing Foundation boathouse. Sixteen clubs or squads submitted 68 entries for 16 planned events. Two events did not have entries so the net events were narrowed to 14. For the results, click here.

Although there were 172 participants, the low number of entries created an event schedule that was slated to run from 08:20h - 12:20h, including three, 30 minute breaks. Unfortunately, the hosts of the regatta, the Cleveland Rowing Foundation, were unable to secure a full river closure (they get that right once a year for the Head of Cuyahoga in September). So the race schedule was suspended twice as commercial barge traffic motored through the course.

The regatta's first event was a Board race, with two eights representing the boards of the two organizations that supported the organization and execution of the regatta, the Western Reserve Rowing Association and the Cleveland Rowing Foundation. As Kirk Lange, head coach of WRRA and the executive director of the Cleveland Rowing Foundation explained, "the boards wanted to demonstrate their support for the regatta and did so in a manner truly befitting the rowing community." Western Reserve won the race in a time of 4:50.5

The local commitment to the regatta was evident from the number of local entries (over half of the event):

• Western Reserve Rowing Association (25 entries)
  
• Greater Columbus Rowing Association (11 entries)
  

Since the race was not sanctioned by USRowing, the entire event was run by 100 volunteers, including officiating. The City of Cleveland's focus on the safety of the participants was phenomenal. Unbeknownst to rowers, police on horseback patrolled the entire length of the race course.

It was medals galore for participants as some races were sorted into two sections, handicapped by age and time, and both sections receiving medals for first, second, and third place. Even events with only one entry raced and medaled (the Gay Games guidance to the regatta committee was very clear: "if they enter, they race and they medal.").

The ten most popular events were:

• men's open 1x (10 entries)
  
• women's 4+ (9 entries)
  
• mixed 8+ (9 entries)
  
• men's 4+ (7 entries)
  
• men's 2x (5 entries)
  
• mixed 2x (5 entries)
  
• mixed 4+ (5 entries)
  
• women's open 1x (4 entries)
  
• women's 8+ (4 entries)
  
• men's 8+ (4 entries)
  

Although gay and lesbian rowers were definitely in the minority for the event, there were family members in many of the races, and of course, there was no doubt about the entries for the San Francisco Bay Blades, the DC Strokes Rowing Club, the Chicago Rowing Union, and two squads of women rowers from Northampton, MA who competed under the name of Pioneer Valley Pride.