They got an idea of what they were capable of on the world stage in the semifinal at the Henley Royal Regatta in London, racing tight against the eventual winners from Great Britain.
When they got to Lucerne, Switzerland for the 2014 World Rowing Cup III, Benjamin Dann (Pound Ridge, N.J.), John Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio), Stephen Whelpley (Mequon, Wis.) and Peter Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio) built on that through their heat and then the semifinal in the men’s quadruple sculls event.
Rowing in the Sunday final, the four United States scullers hung onto a tight field, pushing into medal contention in the first quarter of the 2000-meter course and then rowing through Poland and holding off a surging New Zealand crew in the final strokes to take the bronze medal.
Right from the start, the U.S. quad found themselves in a fight that lasted the length of the course. They were in fifth at 500 meters in, but not one crew had established a clear advantage. By the start of the second half of the race they were in fourth and in contact with leaders Estonia, Great Britain and Poland.
Driving into the last quarter and the final push, the U.S. turned up their effort and drove past Poland into third and held off New Zealand to take the bronze medal at the line in their first experience together as a crew racing against the best in the world.
Great Britain won in 5:50.99. Estonia was second in 5:52.37 and the U.S. crossed in third in 5:54.73,
“It wasn’t pretty,” Dann said during a post race interview with World Rowing. “We only see the race from our perspective. The other teams had a great sprint and we were just really lucky to hold them off. The theme of our weekend was to improve while we put more strokes in and we think we did exactly that.”
The quad was one of two U.S. crews to reach the finals in Lucerne. Rowing in the women’s double sculls final, Ellen Tomek (Flint, Mich.) and Meghan O’Leary (Baton Rouge, La.) fought for 2000-meters but fell short of repeating the medal performance they had at World Rowing Cup II in France in June where they were second.
After pushing their bow into the lead early, Tomek and O’Leary found themselves in a battle with Lithuania, Australia, and Poland. The U.S. pair held onto fourth place and had themselves in position to medal when New Zealand, racing on the far side in lane six, charged through the pack in the final 500-meters to win in 6:59.87. Lithuania was second in 7:00.48 and Poland was third in 7:00.76. The U.S. crossed a fraction of a second behind Australia in 7:03.33 and finished fifth.
"It was an aggressive race,” said O’Leary. “We tried something a little different in the first thousand and executed that pretty well. We just fell off the pace a bit in the second thousand and couldn't quite make it into the medals. It's an unbelievably fast field. Look at the finish with first through fifth place being separated by just over three seconds. It'll surely make for an exciting world championship in August.
“After staying over in Europe and racing for the past month we've learned a lot and gained a lot of valuable experience that we'll look to build on in the coming weeks leading into worlds,” she said. “Can't wait to get back to work."
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07/13/2014 1:38:46 PM