Lightweight four without a helmsman

Lightweight four without a helmsman
Officially	L4-	Lightweight Coxless Four
length	approx. 12 m
Minimum weight	50 kg
World best times (2000 m)
Men:	5: 43.16 (August 29, 2014 in Amsterdam , Bosbaan )
Jacob Larsen , Jacob Barsøe , Kasper Winther , Morten Jørgensen
Women:	6: 36.40 (September 18, 1994 at Indianapolis , Eagle Creek )
Danika Holbrook-Harris , Linda Muri , Charlotte Hollings , Christine Smith-Collins

The lightweight foursome without a helmsman or lightweight foursome without a helmsman (abbreviation L4- ; often simply referred to as a light foursome (without) ) is a lightweight boat class in rowing . There are four rowers in the boat who each drive the boat with a belt and their body weight is limited by regulations.

From the introduction of the Olympic lightweight rowing in 1996 to the sixth edition in 2016, the men's easy four was in the program of the Summer Olympic Games. The competition class was then canceled by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Rowing Federation (FISA) in favor of gender parity with regard to the number of participants in the Olympic rowing regatta from 2020. In October 2017, the boat class was also removed from the program of the World Championships and the U23 World Championships , so that it no longer plays an important role.

description

In contrast to the likewise Olympic but unrestricted four-man team without a helmsman, there is a weight limit for the athletes. In the lightweight version, men may weigh a maximum of 70.0 kg in the team average, for women the maximum permitted team average weight is 57.0 kg.

The light four is the only Olympic strap boat class for lightweights, as the “light two” (L2-) and the “light eight” (L8 +) were never in the Olympic program. The best light belt rowers therefore prefer to compete in the light foursome , where the power density is correspondingly highest. In the men's category, since 1974, with the exception of the Olympic years (from 1996), rowing world champions have been determined annually and since 2007 rowing European champions in this boat class. The easy men's foursome has been in the program of the Olympic rowing regatta since 1996 . In the women's area, on the other hand, this boat class was only part of the world championships from 1984 to 1996 and was never Olympic. The competition route in an easy four-man corresponds to the Olympic distance of 2000 m.

The material and construction of the boat largely correspond to that of a four-man without a helmsman in the open weight class. The boat is about 12 meters long, about 45 cm wide at the waterline and weighs at least 50 kg. Two outriggers are required on each side of the boat . As is usual in the unlimited four-without , there is also no helmsman in the lightweight version . The boat is therefore usually steered by the batsman with a foot control .

history

The UK foursome at the 2012 Olympics

From the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, the lightweight four-man was one of the two Olympic lightweight boat classes alongside the lightweight double scull. In return for his inclusion, the four-man with helmsman in the open weight class was deleted from the Olympic program. Denmark won the Olympic final ahead of Canada and the USA. Germany reached 5th place.

The associations from Argentina , China , the Czech Republic , Denmark , France , the United Kingdom , Germany , Italy , the Netherlands , Poland , South Africa , Switzerland and the United States had qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games in London . The prelims and the semi-finals took place from July 28th 2012 to July 31st on Dorney Lake , near London . The final was held on August 2nd. It was manned with boats from South Africa, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Australia, Switzerland and the Netherlands. South Africa won the race with James Thompson , Matthew Brittain , John Smith , Sizwe Ndlovu in a time of 6: 02.84 minutes. A second later the UK reached the destination. Five hundredths after the United Kingdom, Denmark finished. For Germany, the German Rowing Association put Bastian Seibt , Lars Wichert , Jochen Kühner and Martin Kühner on board, who achieved third place in the B final (9th overall).

At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro , the competitions took place in the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon from August 6th to August 14th. Last year's selection of world champions from Switzerland with Simon Niepmann , Mario Gyr , Simon Schürch and Lucas Tramèr won the gold medal ahead of the Danes.

As part of the “Agenda 2020” of IOC President Thomas Bach , the easy foursome was made available after the 2016 Olympic regatta. Among other things, the agenda provides for gender parity in the number of participants in the Olympic Games by sport, which in rowing, with a ratio of 60:40 in favor of men, generated a need to change the competitions held. Furthermore, the IOC has been generally critical of the lightweight competitions in rowing since 2014. The member associations of the World Rowing Association therefore voted on February 11, 2017 at a congress on the competitions to be proposed by the World Rowing Association to the IOC for the 2020 Olympic rowing regatta in Tokyo. There were two proposals to be voted on: the motion of the World Rowing Association itself provided for the male four-man four-man to be replaced by the women's four-man without in the open weight class, thus making all competition classes gender-symmetrical. The associations from Australia, the People's Republic of China, Denmark and Switzerland had submitted a counter-motion, according to which the men's four-man in the open weight class should be replaced by a lightweight four-man without the women. The competitions would have been gender-symmetrical, but the number of lightweight classes would have increased. In the vote of the FISA member associations, the motion of the World Rowing Association prevailed with 94 to 67 votes. The FISA application for the 2020 Summer Olympics was approved by the IOC in June 2017.

The men's lightweight foursome was held at the World Rowing Championships from 1974 to 2017, with the exception of the Olympic years . After that, the general assembly of the World Rowing Association deleted the class from the program, which was redesigned in the course of gender equality in the competition classes. The deletion also affects the U23 World Championships , so that the easy foursome is no longer relevant in rowing.

Races of the uncontrolled lightweight foursome are no longer held internationally for women. While the women's boats were never in the program at the Olympic Games, they were driven at world championships from 1985 to the mid-1990s.

Successful medals at the Olympic Games

The table shows the nations with medals in the six Olympic events of the men's easy four (1996-2016). The best German result is fifth place at the games in Atlanta.

space	country	gold	silver	bronze	total
1	Denmark	3	1	2	6th
2	France	1		1	2
	South Africa	1			1
	Switzerland	1			1
5	Australia		2		2
6th	Canada		1	1	2
7th	United Kingdom		1		1
	Poland		1		1
9	Italy			1	1
	United States			1	1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} world best times in rowing. Retrieved October 10, 2014 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Olympic program 2020 adopted. In: www.rudern.de. German Rowing Association , February 13, 2017, accessed on February 19, 2017 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} 2017 FISA Extraordinary Congress concludes. In: www.worldrowing.com. World Rowing Association, February 11, 2017, accessed on February 12, 2017 (English). 
4. ↑ Rowing competition rules (RWR) of the German Rowing Association; valid from January 1, 2016. (PDF; 666 kB) (No longer available online.) In: www.rudern.de. German Rowing Association, archived from the original on April 29, 2016 ; Retrieved April 29, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Dimensions of various quad versions at the Empacher shipyard. (No longer available online.) Empacher boatyard , archived from the original on December 23, 2015 ; Retrieved November 4, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ^ Result Olympia 1996. Accessed October 10, 2014 . 
7. ^ Olympic Entries by Event. FISA, accessed October 10, 2014 . 
8. ^ Rowing Men's Lightweight Four. In: olympic.org. Retrieved October 10, 2014 . 
9. ^ Result Olympia 2012. Accessed on October 10, 2014 . 
10. ↑ Lightweight men's foursome (LM4-). (No longer available online.) DRV, archived from the original on October 16, 2014 ; Retrieved October 10, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ↑ 2013 to 2016 FISA Long Term Planning Calendar. (PDF; 139 kB) FISA, accessed on October 10, 2014 (English). 
12. ↑ FISA Congress votes for gender equality across all World Championship events. In: www.worldrowing.com. World Rowing Association, October 2, 2017, accessed on October 2, 2017 (English).