LAKE AIGUEBELETTE, France – The medals were tucked away, all seven of them.
The job at hand late Sunday afternoon at Lake Aiguebelette, France, was to get the boats ready to travel to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and the Holland Beker International Regatta, the next step on the road to the world championships for the United States rowing team.
If that step is anything like the one taken here by the U.S. crews that raced at the 2014 World Rowing Cup 2, the path to the end of the summer and the ultimate prize, the 2014 World Rowing Championships, in Amsterdam, August 24-31, will be paved with gold, silver and bronze -- just like what the U.S. did here on the final day of racing when they pocketed two gold, three silver and two bronze medals.
“It’s always good to get medals,” said head women’s coach Tom Terhaar. “But it’s really important to get race experience and see the competition and go to the line and go to the line again and get the most bang for your buck as far as getting over here and getting the most amount of starts possible.”
For the U.S., “bang for your buck” amounted to gold medals in the men’s and women’s eights, silver medals in the women’s quadruple sculls, women’s pair and women’s double sculls, and bronze medals in the men’s four and women’s pair and taking second in the overall points race for the regatta.
The day was capped by an impressive showing from the men’s eight squad of Zach Vlahos (Piedmont, Calif.), Thomas Dethlefs (Lawrenceville, N.J.), Nareg Guregian (North Hills, Calif.), Matthew Miller (Springfield, Va.), Rob Munn (Redmond, Wash.), Mike Gennaro (Havertown, Pa.), Steven Kasprzyk (Cinnaminson, N.J.), Ambrose Puttmann (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Thomas Peszek (Farmington Hills, Mich.).
Looking to improve its race starts coming off a bronze medal at the 2013 World Rowing Championships in South Korea, the eight jumped off the line and led the length of the 2,000-meter course, finishing first in 5:41.51. Great Britain was second in 5:43.03, and Belarus was third in 5:44.03.
“It’s something we have been working on,” Vlahos said, “having a stronger start. And we wanted to execute it here. We wanted to execute our race plan, and I think we did that today. We happened to cross the line first, but more important to us was we executed our plan and our step towards our main goal of winning the world championships.
While the men’s eight was a solid performance, the women’s eight crew of coxswain Katelin Snyder (Winter Park, Fla.), Caroline Lind (Greensboro, N.C.), Vicky Opitz (Middleton, Wis.), Meghan Musnicki (Naples, N.Y.), Grace Luczak (Ann Arbor, Mich.), Lauren Schmetterling (Moorestown, N.J.), Amanda Polk (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Kerry Simmonds (San Diego, Calif.) and Megan Kalmoe (St. Croix Falls, Wis.) was heart stopping.
All eight of the women had raced in the pairs final – taking silver and bronze – and had every excuse to not reach the top of the podium. Indeed, it seemed like that was going to happen. Canada got out in front and led deep into the final 500, and just when it seemed that the U.S. women’s eight, long the top dog in the world, would succumb, they upped their rate and nipped the Maple Leaf oars in the final strokes of the race.
“This is our first test of our speed this season, and the other boats we were racing are incredibly fast. We got off the line and looked around and realized we needed to push the base pace now, we can’t wait,” said Snyder.
“All nine of us believe in each other and ourselves, and I think it was that belief and hard work that eventually paid off, but didn’t pay off until what seemed like the very end. But I don’t think there was a moment in the race where I was worried,” she said.
“I really believed in us. We kind of were able to look around at four hundred meters and decided it was time.” The U.S. slipped past Canada into first and finished in 6:04.77, with Canada crossing second in 6:05.82. Great Britain was third in 6:11.39.
For the pair crews of Simmonds and Kalmoe and Luczak and Lind, it was a double medal day.
Racing two other U.S. pairs in the first final of the day – the U.S. crews of Opitz and Musnicki and Polk and Schmetterling – along with the defending Olympic champions Helen Glover and Heather Stanning of Great Britain and China, Simmonds and Kalmoe took silver in 7:06.98, while Luczak and Lind took bronze in 7:09.12
Glove and Stanning won in 7:02.91. Opitz and Musnicki were fourth, China was fifth and Polk and Schmetterling finished sixth.
The second-place finish has earned NSR winners Simmonds and Kalmoe an automatic berth to the squad that will race in the world championships in the pair. “We’ll talk to our teammates about that,” Kalmoe said.
While being in two hard races might have drained the U.S. women of some early speed, it did more to bond them as a unit and feed their trust in each other.
“I made a point of giving a shout out on the line to the rest of our team to work as a team,” said Kalmoe.
“Our teammates push us all year so it was really special to have them here to push us,” agreed Simmonds. “You just kind feed off that kind of vibe.”
Next up in the medal parade was the men’s four crew of Seth Weil (Menlo Park, Calif.), Henrik Rummel (Pittsford, N.Y.), Gennaro (Havertown, Pa.) and Grant James (DeKalb, Ill.).
With Gennaro doubling up in the eight throughout the regatta due to an injury to Ross James (Dekalb, Ill.) and Weil racing with a fever, the four was tested before the start light was lit.
But it didn’t stop them from reaching the podium or fighting for the highest spot possible the length of the course. They raced in second until the final 500 meters when they were passed by Australia, who were on their stern the entire time.
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