Indoor rower finishes fourth

The finish in a field of 72 in the world contest proves a bit disappointing to the Venetian Isles resident.

By RICHARD DANIELSON

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 27, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- Rower John Stenard expected a tough race at Sunday's world indoor rowing championships in Boston. And that's exactly what he got.

Stenard, 41, finished fourth in a field of 72 men, ages 40 to 49, in the CRASH-B Sprints at Roxbury Community College. He had hoped at least to match his third-place finish last year, but came up short with a time of 6 minutes, 14.6 seconds for the 2,000-meter race. That's seven seconds slower than his best time, but it's probably among the top 150 times for any rower of any age in the world this year.

This was the second year that the organizers of the sprints have flown Stenard to Boston to compete. The races are held on Concept II rowing machines, a trainer commonly used by college and Olympic rowing programs around the world.

Stenard, a MacDill Special Operations Command engineer who lives in Venetian Isles, wished he had done better, especially after he rowed a best-ever time to qualify for the championships. He might have been tired from a St. Petersburg-to-Boston travel day that didn't end until 11:30 the night before the race. He also skipped breakfast on the notion that he would row first thing in the morning. As it turned out, his race didn't go off until after noon.

"About 200 meters in I realized something was drastically wrong," he said a few days later. "I just didn't feel like I had any strength."

This was the first race in five years in which Stenard did not set a personal record, and he wants to ensure that it is no more than a minor setback.

"It was a wonderful experience," he said. "I was a bit disappointed, but I know what I did wrong, and I'm not going to do it again, and I'm going to go back and train even harder."

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