WEST WINDSOR, N.J. - It took two tough races to sort things out but the final spots on the team that will represent the United States at the World Rowing Championships were decided this morning on the last day of the 2010 World Championships Trials at Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J.
The lightweight women's single was also decided when Vesper's Julie Nichols (Livermore, Calif.) rowed a third final uncontested. Nichols was set to go up against Ursula Grobler (Pretoria, South Africa), who has already qualified to row in both the lightweight double and lightweight quadruple sculls, but decided not to row the race.
Grobler, who won the first final on Thursday and then lost the second Friday, pulled out of the third race after qualifying in the quadruple sculls, opting to focus on the lightweight women's double, which is the only Olympic event of the three she was attempting to qualify for.
In the women's single, the stage was set Friday morning when Lindsay Meyer (Seattle, Wash.), came back on Cambridge Boat Clubs' Genevra Stone (Newton, Mass.) in the second 1,000 meters to win and force the third race. Stone had won the first final Thursday.
This morning, Stone jumped into a slight early lead and then pushed to open water by the first 500 meters. She held the lead through the thousand until Meyer closed the gap bow to stern and held that position into the final 500.
That was when Meyer began her final move and passed Stone, who did not relinquish the lead easily. The two fought stroke for stroke until Meyer took her rate up and moved into the lead for good, winning with a time of 7:36.923 to Stone's 7:37.764.
"I just kept going. It was a really close, amazing race," said Meyer. "I just stayed calm and kept pounding it. I don't know that I ever have a real plan until I get into it. But I usually am not particularly fast off the start. I was just sort of trying to hang in with her on that because I know she is a really good starter. And then I just went for it when I saw the opportunity."
USRowing Training Center-Oklahoma City's Steve Young (Tampa, Fla.), Nareg Guregian (North Hills, Calif.) and Justin Stangel (Madison, Wis.) forced a third final in the men's pair with coxswain by rowing through the team of Marcus McElhenney (Lansdowne, Pa.), Steve Kasprzyk (Cinnaminson, N.J.) and Troy Kepper in the final meters of the second final on Friday.
The trio of McElhenney, Kasprrzk, and Kepper wanted nothing to do with a repeat of that result and built a healthy, early open-water lead. But the team of Young, Guregian and Stangel refused to give in and closed a stroke at a time until they gained bow on stern going into the final 500 and then sprinted to the win by 0.18 seconds with a time of 7:02.936 to 7:03.132.
"We knew from the race before that we had the sprint if we needed it," Young said. "We started out a little farther down today than we had hoped, but I told them with 500 meters to go, I said 'you've got 500 meters to go and a length to go. If you want it, it's yours.' They definitely wanted it. It was a great finish."