It might be compared to the National Hockey League regular season. Or perhaps the Daytona 500 qualifying runs. Neither event really counts, but a strong performance usually bodes well for future efforts.

The World Indoor Rowing Championships, known as the CRASH-B Sprints, serve the same limited purpose--the event proves very little, but the cream often rises to the top.

Sunday, in Rockwell Cage at MIT, the 10th anniversary of this February warm-up to the real rowing season took place. Complete with the ceremonial warbling of the national anthem, this year's Charles River All Star Has-Beens Sprints maintained the irreverent tone of its origins, while still broadening its appeal.

For the second consecutive year, more than 300 fans who cheered on the finalists were treated to a Nintendo-like display of the raging races. Each of the eight finalists was represented by a VDT boat, which moved along an imaginary 2500m racecourse at the simulated speed of the contestant.

Many of the finalists were foreign entrants flown in to justify the 'World' segment of the title. Great Britain's Steve Redgrave, second in the men's Open division a year ago, flattened his competition with a blazing start.

The Cambridge Connection

Harvard and Radcliffe rowers, both past and present, comprise a sizeable group of the 1000-strong field. Undergraduates are expected to participate, and the event was founded by Gregg Stone '75 and Christopher 'Tiff' Wood '77--both eventual national team oarsmen.

This year's Crimson representatives did not just participate; they excelled. In the collegiate men's division, Harvard sophomore Bill Cooper reeled in Northeastern oarsman Craig Wigginton over the last 500m of the race, and won the prized hammer. Awarded in recognition of the strength required to beat an ergometer into submission, and not in the pejorative sense in which the term would be applied on the water, this hardened-steel trophy epitomizes the deadly frivolity of the event. Four other Crimson rowers competed in the final.

Radcliffe's Own...

The Black and White placed highly, as well. Led by junior Kristi Stoddard, who fell seconds short in her efforts to catch Northeastern's Christine Cook, Radcliffe placed three in the collegiate women's final. In the lightweight women's event, the Black and White took second and fourth, with Radcliffe's Rachael Green trailing only gold medalist Anna Seaton.