The Mayfair ERG Challenge's 1000m Open Men's race featured an epic two-man battle between the Piranhas' Jason Au and Scott Murray of the X-Paddling Collective. However, after a highly tactical qualifying heat and a tight final race, Jason hung on to squeak out a victory and prevail as the Mayfair ERG Challenge 1000m Men's Champion.

Jason's strategy for the qualifying rounds was to race hard enough just to finish in the top 5 to ensure a spot in the final. In the first of two qualifying heats, two things became apparent with about 100 metres left. First, it appeared that Jason was a shoe-in to finish top five, and second, it looked like Jason's stiffest challenge would come from Scott Murray. At this point, Jason shut down and eased into the finish line realizing that he would need to conserve as much strength as he could to do it all over again against Scott in the final.

Jason Au and Scott Murray of the X-Paddling Collective were locked in a tactical battle during the qualifying heats

In the 1000m final, Scott shot off to a very quick start and the two rowers were neck-to-neck for the entire race. However with about 250m left, Jason created enough separation to hold off Scott's finishing charge to cross the finish line first in a time of 3:15.6, narrowly winning by 1.4 seconds.

While the time was 5 seconds off of Jason's personal best, this race was not so much about time as using the right race strategy to get the job done. Multiple heats on an ergometer require more conditioning than the single heat required at the Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships, as well as a wise allocation of energy during the heat and the finals.

Thanks to the Mayfair Predators for putting on a great event, Alain and Gord from Jetstart for providing the timing and race software, and Mediaco for providing all sound equipment. The Mayfair competition features a 4x500m team relay challenge, as well as gender-category races for 2000m, 1000m and 500m. Full results can be found here.