Tough outing for rower Christian Howard

By Morissa Lindsay 

It was not the result that Barbadian rower Christian Howard wanted but he was happy to finish 25th in the world earlier this month when he competed in the 2022 World Rowing Coastal Championship and Beach Sprints in Wales, England.

President of the Rowing Association of Barbados, Dr Anthony Yarde, said that they encountered some challenges which played a role in the outcome of Howard’s performance. He explained that they arrived two days late when the competition had already started for the coastal rowing component and therefore Howard was unable to participate.

In addition, three days later, Howard was able to compete in the World Beach Sprints and in the first round did reasonably well and missed out on a quarterfinal spot having acquired two penalties because of rule violations that cost him deductions off his times in the event.

Yarde noted that Howard got those two penalties because he false started and that resulted in the race being started over and then he missed a buoy which he explained, “In coastal rowing you go around buoys through obstacles and Christian missed out on one of the buoys and that lend itself to the second penalty and saw him not qualifying automatically. He entered the second round and improved drastically and even improved his time by one minute but yet he did not do well enough to go any further.

“Also, he would have beaten someone from Brazil who is ahead of Barbados when it comes to beach sprints. In the second round he upped his speed to three minutes and 35 seconds beating Brazil but he would have missed out on the overall spot. Even though he won his heat the time was not that good for him to qualify.”

Yarde added: “Christian’s mental state gives him a little trouble now and then because of the uncertainty of getting to the games. We only knew we were going to the games the day before when we got the money to go to the games.”

Speaking on the weather conditions in Wales, Yarde added: “It was extremely cold, the rain fell and your hands were sliding off the board, it was a terrible time. Matter of fact, the last day of competition had to be called off. That is to show you how bad the weather was in Wales.”

Now that the event is behind them, the RAB president outlined two major upcoming competitions which are the Central American and Caribbean Games qualifiers which are scheduled next month for Mexico and the Commonwealth Beach Sprints in Africa.

“We have a lot of qualifiers coming up and we need to be at these games so that we can put ourselves in position to qualify,” Yarde said as he thanked the Barbados Olympic Association, National Sports Council and Adele Greenidge who helped Howard with his rehabilitation during therapy sessions.

morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb