It took a new course record and a literally blinding-hard row to do it, but the all-Bears pair of Anders Weiss (Brown grad) and Nareg Guregian (Cal grad) won the Olympic men's pair trails final and the last two spots on the 2016 USA Olympic rowing team this morning.
After a clear skied dawn, a dense fog rolled in on the cross-tailwind about an hour before race time, sending tufts of white mist rolling up the boathouse tarmac, and ultimately causing a 15 minute race delay from the original 8am start. By the time the crews were in the starting docks, sunlight was bouncing off the sunglasses off the officials who were to follow the race.
In the three days of racing leading up to the final, all four crews in the race had showed themselves capable of very solid speed, so no one was expecting anything but an all-out race, and that is what they got. From my view driving the media launch, it seemed that after a pretty even start across all four lanes, the Weiss/Guregian pair and the Vesper pair of Yohann Rigogne and Tom Peszek had pushed out to a few feet on the field, and then started duking it out from there.
Weiss/Guregian pushed out to a bit of a lead in the first 500, and Vesper responded, coming even and maybe even ahead briefly at one point early in the second 500. From there the Weiss/Guregian pair was able to eke out a few inches every hundred meters or so, and by the third 500 had a few seats on Vesper. As they fought it out, the pairs of Dariush Aghai and Mike Genarro and Will Daly and Tom Detlef were having good rows, but just couldn't match the pace of the leaders.
Just over the 500 to go mark, the Vesper crew started to wind for the finish, and made up a little bit of water, but Weiss and Guregian were able to counter and hold them, and that was how it went to the line, with Weiss and Guregian finishing in 6:21.10, which is apparently a new course record for the men's pair (I believe Peszek and Rigogne also beat the old record).
After the race, the crew celebrated briefly until Weiss repeatedly said "I can't see, I can't see," in an otherwise upbeat voice; Guregian called our launch over, and we got Weiss on the official's launch, where he rag-dolled on the bow while still giving thumbs up and "good race" comments to the other crews. USRowing staffer Ed Moran got in the pair with Nareg, and they rowed the boat back to the dock.
We spoke to both pair members at length after the racing; here is what they had to say.
Nareg Guregian
Nareg Guregian has been on US senior teams going back to 2010, and was in the eight in both 2011 and 2013, but did not make the Olympic team in 2012. This year, he was the last member of the US camp not to make a boat – or put more bluntly, the last "cut" – so when he got up this morning, it was to go race in what was potentially his last go at making an Olympic team.
row2k: It's been a long road to get here for you; have you been reflecting on that at all this week, and did you bring that to the course? Or did you see this as more its own big race?
Nareg Guregian: I think that's always in the back of your mind, but I also think it's a little arrogant to just think about myself and what I've done. There are so many people who have done less who haven't had the same chances, or more and didn't make it. You're just one more person chasing this goal, this dream. And I think we--not just for myself, but as a pair, and as a team--we have worked well and hard to make this dream a reality.
It wasn't easy, but I think that's why it's special. It's only special because of your teammates and how hard they push you, and that's the truth. If we won against high school kids, it wouldn't mean anything, or if we won against bad pairs, it wouldn't mean anything. So, it's just really an honor to represent the U.S. and represent our teammates.
That's really how I feel, and I'm just a little overcome emotionally because of the highs and the lows. It's not really about how long it's been getting here, because I've enjoyed it, and it only feels long when you don't do well. It has been a long road, but it's been fun.
row2k: On the point of racing with and against your teammates, this was a really tight field over the past few days, and you all know each other. When devising a strategy for the racing, how did you guys go about this?
Guregian: When we first got into a pair, we only thought about doing volume, and not super intense work. We wanted to get the rhythm down, figure out the little kinks, and get the fitness in, because we could always work on the first five strokes of a race. Everyone talks about the start and all that kind of stuff, but we knew--in a pair especially--the middle, the base, is super important.
When you watch the Kiwis, they're never necessarily crushing the first 500. They're going fast, but everyone else is as well, but no one could hang with them through the middle 1000. And if they do hang with them to the 750, then they're in trouble. If they hang with them to the 1000, then they're in trouble. If they hang with them to the 1900, then they're in trouble. So our focus was get the base work in, figure out how to pull hard for long amounts of time, and then the 2k feels short compared to what we've been doing.
From there, the little things like figuring out how to row at 36, 38, 40, 42 strokes a minute, if you have the fitness for it, then that'll come a little more quickly than if you're just banking on trying to out-strategize someone. We're just trying to out-fitness people. That's really what we tried to do.
We worked extremely hard, pushed each other really hard, and I think the work ethic is what brought us through. We both didn't make the eight, and we have a little bit of anger or frustration or disappointment, all those feelings, and I think it's really easy to focus that energy in the wrong direction. So we just focused the motivation on the rowing. There's nothing we could do about that, so we just gotta focus on making this boat as fast as possible.
And for sure we came here not knowing we were going to win. That would be ridiculous. We know all these pairs are fast. But we did believe that we did the right work, and I knew we were good racers, so we just did what we had to do.
row2k: So now is it "Go Bears," or "Go USA?"
Guregian: Once I saw Cal win here (at the IRA), I've never been so happy for someone, truly. I didn't think I'd be that excited for them. But it was just this motivating feeling, where once I saw them win, it kind of really just woke me up. It really was this feeling of just like, all right, let's get to work.
Mike Teti came and was giving me advice. Scott Frandsen helped coach us a little bit. Kris Korzeniowski's been helping us a lot. So, we had a really good group of people supporting us. My fiancée Katelin (Snyder, coxswain of the US women's eight) has been nothing but supportive for the both of us, and we would not have been here with them at all.
So the Golden Bears in stroke and the Brown Bear in bow. Anders did truly a hell of a job from the top; he pulled me around the first 1750, so he just saved me, and then I went the last 250. That's a fair compromise.
Anders Weiss
Anders Weiss is only one year out of college, having graduated from Brown last year. Despite having won silver in the 2013 U23 eight, by his own admission Weiss had a tough start when he joined the men's camp last fall.
row2k: You definitely went full bore on that one; tell me what that was like, and how you were feeling over the finish line.
Weiss: Nareg and I knew we were racing some very, very fast and very experienced racers, and we knew they were going to throw everything at us, so our game plan was off the start, up or down, we're going to keep pushing. Fortunately for us, we had a very good start and we were able to take the lead.
Right to my left, Tom (Detlef) and Will Daly were sticking with us and then Vesper of course was right there with us. We knew Peszek and Yohann have an incredible sprint. Korzo had told us don't rely on a length coming to the last 250, because I've seen them just leave people in the dust.
So we kept pushing throughout the race, trying to eke out more and more margin to give us a comfortable buffer. Going into this race, we knew with 400 to go we were going to have to kick it into gear, and we did that in a way we haven't done before. It was together, it was fast, and we started eking out more and more margin. And at that point it was just go.
Coming into the red buoys, I couldn't see too much; all I could see were the red buoys and I could see Nareg pulling as hard as he could, and I said, "I'm not going to be the guy that loses us this race." We kept going, and I remember the last 50 meters, my legs were giving out, I was seeing stars, and I said, "I gotta do it for the guy in front of me." We finished first, and… it was pretty painful. [laughs]
row2k: You pretty much rowed yourself blind here.
Weiss: I wouldn't be able to do it if it wasn't for Nareg. He's one of those guys who has been working at this a long time; he was the last one cut and was so close, and he just said "That's not going to happen again," right when we got in the pair together.
He came up with the training plan for the first couple weeks and he worked us to the bone, and then Korzo took over and he gave us a training plan, and we worked to the bone to get it. It's a year out of college for me. I haven't put the time in that he has, and I knew that I wasn't going to lose this for him, and so I was able to push myself to that point because he has done all that work and I respect him to the utmost.
I was ecstatic when he chose me for a partner because I thought, this is the guy I want to row with and this is the guy I want to race with because he's just so intense and he's so focused. We have different personalities; where I'm a little more outspoken, he's sort of serious and down to business, and it worked really well. Right when I got in the pair with him, we just worked our butts off to get it to the point where we could perform like we did.
row2k: Do you put any stock in the fact that you set the course record this morning?
Weiss: No, I don't. I know we're going to be going against the best in the world; the Kiwis went 6:08; I have watched a lot of video of them to try to improve my own rowing. I've seen them row; I've seen how clean they are. I know they're more powerful than I am by a long shot. It's very nice to set a record here, but I know it's not something to rest on.
row2k: It's a pretty short ramp to Rio from here; do you think that's going to be hard to do?
Weiss: Nareg said from the get-go, "I don't like tapering." And I said, "Well, I do. I do, but you're the guy in charge. We're not going to taper that much." (laughs) And I learned a great amount from my time at Brown of how to break the taper and then get right back into it, and I think that's what we're going to do.
Of course, we're going to take a little time to celebrate, but Nareg doesn't want to go just to go (to the Olympics) and I don't want to go just to go. I want to go to win and he does, too. In a couple mornings we'll be right back at it, pushing ourselves. Maybe if the straight four and the eight ever break down into pairs, we'll be able to race them, because they're incredibly talented.
I'm a year out of college, and I hadn't rowed in any pairs before coming here, really. I wouldn't be where I am now without the older guys helping me out. I remember in my first two weeks down here in the fall, it was really tough. I wasn't moving boats well. My technique was really off.
The coaches did a very good job helping me out, but sometimes you just gotta figure it out, and I think the older guys - Charlie Cole, Henrik Rummel, all the starboards I rowed with - they helped me to the extent where I know I would not have been able to put a 6:21 down without those guys. I'm just incredibly grateful for the opportunity that I had in the fall to come down here, get some experience with the best in the world, which led me to row with Nareg and perform the way we did.
row2k: So now should people cheer "Go Bears!" or "Go USA!"?
Weiss: Hey, it's the Golden Bears and the Brown Bears. We both love our alma maters; my coach from Brown was here and I loved knowing that he was going to be here because he was instrumental in shaping me to be the racer that I am. And Teti has been texting Nareg "good job, keep it going" and to have two coaches of that caliber rooting for you, it's fantastic. So it's "Go Bears!", but it's also "Go USA!" now!
Comments | Log in to comment |
row2k's Olympics coverage is brought to you by:
row2k's Olympics coverage is brought to you by:
06/22/2016 3:57:12 PM