ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands -- Cool, calm and persistent minds won over the whitecaps and a strong crosswind that gave the senior-level athletes an exciting and challenging start to the 2016 World Rowing Championships. For the U.S. women's four, sticking to the race plan proved the perfect solution.
"We tried our best to handle the challenging conditions and focus on making the middle part of the race where we could make our impact," said Molly Bruggeman. "We will definitely continue to work on our ability to row in the rough water in preparation for the final on Saturday."
Taking an early, open-water lead, returning gold-medalist Kristine O'Brien (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) led her teammates Coco Schoeller (Palm Beach, Fla.), Emily Huelskamp (Sainte Genevieve, Mo.) and Bruggeman (Dayton, Ohio) directly to the final in a time of 6:41.88.
For others, the conditions just added to the excitement of the day's racing.
"I was just having a lot of fun," said lightweight men's single sculler Colin Ethridge. "This is perfect. It just makes me want to say 'bring it on' to everyone I race."
Ethridge (Laytonsville, Md.) led through the 1,000-meter mark but was unable to maintain the lead, falling to third, but still qualifying for the quarterfinal with a time of 7:21.44.
In total, four of the seven U.S. senior crews advanced to the next round as day one of racing for that age class concluded.
Unable to gain the lead over the local favorite, Tom Peszek (Farmington Hills, Mich.), Yohann Rigogne (Besançon, France) and coxswain Lou Lombardi (Philadelphia, Pa.) took second in the first heat of the men's pair with coxswain. The trio advanced to the semifinals with a time of 7:01.78, finishing only 1.26 seconds behind the Dutch crew.
Despite a massive sprint and the fastest final 500 meters of her heat, Mary Jones (Huntsville, Ala.) was unable to overtake the Swiss sculler to advance directly to the semifinals in the lightweight women's single sculls. Jones finished second and will race in a repechage on Tuesday.
The lightweight men's pair of Peter Gibson (Belmont, Mass.) and Andy Weiland (Columbus, Ohio) will compete in the repechage after finishing fourth in its heat.
A fifth-place finish in the last race of the day also relegated the lightweight men's quadruple sculls of Jacob Georgeson (North Olmsted, Ohio), Peter Schmidt (Providence, R.I.), Christopher Lambert-Rogers (Weston, Fla.) and Tobin McGee (Rye, N.Y.) to the repechage.
In a preview of the upcoming final, the lightweight women's quadruple sculls crew of Emily Schmieg (Philadelphia, Pa.), Morgan McGovern (San Francisco, Calif.), Monica Whitehouse (Muskego, Wis.) and Ashley Amos (Bennington, Vt.) had an opportunity to test its competition, clocking in at 6:42.59 to finish fourth in the race for lane placement.
In under 23 competition, the lightweight women's single sculls, lightweight men's single sculls, men four with coxswain and lightweight men's four advanced out of the repechages in morning racing.
In one of the toughest fought battles of the repechages, Emma Betuel (East Hampton, N.Y.) fought to fend off an aggressive Italian sculler and claimed the fastest time in the first repechage of the lightweight women's single sculls in a 7:59.84.
"I am excited that I get a chance to race in the semifinals, but also feel like I need to put together a better race to match the speed in the other rep," said Betuel. "That said, nothing is decided until we all line up next to each other. My goal is to be more effective every time I go down the course, and I am ready to put it all out there tomorrow."
Competition will continue on Tuesday with semifinals and quarterfinals in the under 23 events beginning at 9:30 a.m. local time. Senior-level repechages will begin for the U.S. at 11:00 a.m. local time with the lightweight women's single sculls.