Before many of her fellow competitors had even arrived at Nathan Benderson Park, Narragansett Boat Club's Emily Kallfelz had already won two gold medals in the span of an hour.
A light Florida breeze kept spectators cool as things heated up on the race course for thefinal day of racing at the 2015 USRowing Youth National Championships. Eighteen national titles were awarded on Sunday afternoon.
Kallfelz, a 2014 U.S. Junior National Team member, took gold in the women's single sculls in the first final of the morning with a nine-second lead over Olympic Peninsula's Elise Beuke.
An hour later, Kallfelz was back at the start line with her younger sister, Eliza, to race thelightweight women's double sculls. The Kallfelz sisters never relinquished their early lead, finishing eight seconds ahead of Y Quad Cities' sister crew of Caroline and Elizabeth Sharis.
"It can be hard racing with your sister because sometimes there is a lot of arguing," said Emily Kallfelz. "That also allows us to be very open about what we are each doing well."
The Sharis sisters redeemed themselves later in the afternoon, as their Henley-bound crew would take gold in the women's quadruple sculls.
Narragansett went on to claim three of the first six titles of the morning as the lightweight men's double sculls lineup of Thomas Satterthwaite and Artym Hayda gained an early open-water lead. Austin Rowing Club and New Canaan Crew raced for inches in a fight for silver.
The Austin crew was able to edge out in front for a 0.173-second advantage, finishing second.
Brookline Rowing's senior Jordi Cabanas has extensive experience in the lightweight men's double sculls and was able to close out his final USRowing Youth National Championships with a thrilling, come-from-behind victory. In 2013, Cabanas won gold in the lightweight double and came in third in 2014.
As Row America Rye jumped to an early lead, the front three crews, RA Rye, Brookline and GMS Rowing Center would stay connected through the first 1,000 meters. It was not until the final 200 meters of the race that the drama began, when GMS and Brookline made one final push, going stroke for stroke until Brookline pulled away in the last 10 strokes.
"We decided to go off pretty hard because we knew the teams were going to push out and have a fast start," said Cabanas. "We knew the field was going to be tight so we just had a great sprint and that is what got us through."
U.S. Junior National team member and 2014 USRowing Youth National Championships bronze medalist in the women's pair, Holy Names' Marlee Blue, was able to take an early lead with her pair partner Katy Gilinghman.
The duo pulled away with open water after the first quarter of the race and was able to maintain their lead to post a six-second win over the next crew. Gilinghman and Blue added to their medal count later in the afternoon, winning bronze in the women's eight.
In what has been labeled the biggest and most competitive field of clubs in USRowing Youth National Championships history, six of the 18 grand finals came down to actual photo-finishes, with the closest margin being 0.020 seconds between bronze and fourth in the men's pair.
Comments | Log in to comment |
06/16/2015 11:00:20 PM