When the 2012 USRowing National Championships begin tomorrow on Mercer Lake in West Mercer, N.J., not only will some of the best rowers in the country be on hand, but six London Olympians will get some final racing in before heading off next month.
Among the 103 crews entered in the 18 events that will take place June 27-29 are the U.S. men's pair of Silas Stafford (Santa Rosa, Calif.) and Tom Peszek (Farmington Hills, Mich.), and the U.S. lightweight men's four crew of Robin Prendes (Miami, Fla.), Nick LaCava(Weston, Conn.), Will Newell (Weston, Mass.) and Anthony Fahden. The lightweight men's four will be racing in two events including the men's pair and the men's four.
"It's just a good tune-up race for us before we leave for London, to get a couple of races under our belt," said LaCava. "I'm looking forward to it. It should be fun. We're split up in pairs, stern pair and bow pair, and we are also rowing the four.
"The closer we get to leaving, the more excited we all get," he said. "After this event, we have two more weeks of solid training and then we head out over to London."
The regatta will be held at the Finn M.W. Caspersen Rowing Center and will feature 18 boat classes and one adaptive event, the mixed legs, trunk and arms four with coxswain.
Racing will begin Wednesday with a time trial at 6 p.m. in the lightweight men's single. Fifteen athletes are entered in the event, including past national team lightweight Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg (Philadelphia, Pa.) and 2008 Olympian Tom Paradiso (Blue Bell, Pa.). Urevick-Ackelsberg finished 10th in the event at the 2010 World Rowing Championships.
Urevick-Ackelsberg and Paradiso finished fourth in the double sculls and sixth in the quadruple sculls at the 2011 Pan American Games. Paradiso finished 11th in the lightweight four at the Beijing Olympics.
Racing will resume Thursday morning with heats followed by afternoon repechages. Finals will take place Friday morning.