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Supersprint Rowing is entirely different from conventional rowing events - it is fast, challenging and unpredictable, designed to entertain spectators and television viewers. Every stage is raced at maximum speed over 350 meters.
A Supersprint Team includes three boats: a men's single, a women's double and a men's pair *. These boats race first in heats against other boats of the same class. The heats are followed immediately by the finals for the individual boat classes, when rowers win or lose their individual events and start to score points towards the overall Team Championship.
Then tension builds as the rowers appear again, later in the day, for sprint relays involving all three boats in each Team. In the final relays the Teams are aiming to win the relay title and at the same time they score more points to decide the overall Team Championship.
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| © Photograph copyright Peter Spurrier 1999 |
The winner of each final for individual boats scores 4 points, second place scores 3 points, third scores 2 points and fourth scores 1 point. So for example if Great Britain scores a win and two fourth places in the individual finals, the Team will have 6 points. The United States and Holland might be ahead at this stage, each with a win and one second place, giving them 7 points each.
Later in the day all the teams race again in the relays, in heats followed immediately by the final. In the Relay Final each team aims to win the relay and to add to their points in the overall Team Championship. Places in the final of the relay score double points: the winner scores 8, second scores 6, third scores 4 and fourth scores 2.
In the example given above, Great Britain would win the Team Championship if the British Team manages to finish ahead of the USA and Holland in the final relay.
The Supersprint format therefore provides each Team with four separate opportunities to win in a single day of racing - the three individual boat classes, the relay and the Team Championship.
In parallel with all the International races, there are separate events for Elite Teams, Universities and Schools, all competing in the same format, with the same point-scoring system.
A feature of Supersprint Rowing is that no official times are taken. Even if a commentator announces unofficial times, the conditions and race pressures are rarely consistent so nobody can tell in advance who will win. Relay racing maintains the uncertainty until the last finishing line is crossed in the last race of the day.
* The first two of these are sculling boats in which each competitor holds two oars. The "pair" is a rowing boat in which the men have one oar each.
Supersprint Rowing in association with
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