The Adaptive events held their finals today, awarding the first five medals of the 2014 Worlds. Australia led the way and leads the medals table with two golds and a silver, followed by GB with one gold and one silver, Norway and Ukraine with one gold, France with a silver and a bronze, Israel and the US with a silver, and Belarus, Brazil, Italy and Russian each with one bronze.
The medals ceremony was tricky to cover, as they had the medaling crews moving all over the place, but I was able to get a few quick quotes on the fly. Here is what I learned.
Women's single winner Birgit Skarstein of Norway
We started and I remember I had to think to not scoop the oars or do anything that made me fall behind from the beginning. So I started getting ahead fast, and then for every 250 meters I tried to think about something that I should focus on. So I tried to keep my rhythm and my breath, and my strokes as long as I could through the whole race. For one moment I thought that Israel was taking me, so I remembered just trying to fight her off as I could, until I heard the crowd and I thought the race would be almost over but it felt really long. It was very nice.
Men's Single winner Erik Horrie of Australia
There was a little bit of tail at the start, and then it sort of turned a little bit to a sort of a cross. The water temperature is not that high, so the water is a little bit heavier, but that was a good race. I did what I wanted to do to get out in the front, then basically sit there and be able to view and see everyone else and see what they did, so when they tried to jump I was able to respond. I was lucky enough I was able to.
Trunks/Arms Mixed Double, Australia
Kathryn Ross: It was a good race, it was nice and tight, plus there were a few surprises in there for us, which was really fantastic. It's our second one in a row, and it's a great feeling as well as a great stepping forward towards Rio at this stage.
Gavin Bellis: I think we had an alright start, we were in a good position, but everyone was still there. I remember that Brazil was still there, and France was still there, so we had a little push before the 250, and we just had to keep on going from there. It was a flat out race right to the end.
USA Mixed Four silver medalist, stroke Dani Hansen
We obviously worked very hard in that race. It feels like you didn’t get what you came for, you know? We worked hard every day for that gold medal, and we got the silver. I’m so proud to be part of a crew that is this young, I think probably one of the youngest crews to be here in history. I’m so proud to be part of the crew that got the medal for the first time for the US, but it’s just like it’s right there… but we got silver and I’m proud to get it. But I wish… next year.
It was surreal. This is my first year rowing. So much happening all in one place, it’s not just a start and finish; it’s a start and then people everywhere and cameras and launches, so much going on. I think part of the reason why we did this well was we were able to keep an inward focus, and I think that really paid off in the end.
In the middle of the race I had a thought when we passed the 500 I thought we’re doing it, we’re in the middle of the race. It was just like it was mechanical, like no brain involved. It was like we all gave our brains to the coxswain before the race, and just have her think for us. We hit 500 and it was like this is it, this is the end of all we’ve worked for this whole summer. It worked out, I just wish we could have gotten gold.
US Men's Single
US Men's sculler Blake Haxton took fourth, just one second from the medals, and despite his tremendous improvement over the past week, felt the loss acutely after the race.
"It’s never easy to take fourth, especially a close fourth, but those three guys I give them all the credit in the world," Haxton said. "They’re clearly the best three guys in this event in the world. It’s really just a privilege to be in that race and to get to be competitive in it. It’s really what you dream about, you just really want to have a chance going into the finish, and I had a chance and they were just a little bit better today. They absolutely got my best, and theirs is just a little bit better, so again real big privilege to race with those guys, huge congratulations to them. I guess we’ll go home and just try to come back just that little bit better next year."
Asked about his considerable improvement this week, and his status as a new guy in the ranks, Haxton was upbeat and forward-looking.
"That’s really probably the best thing about the week," he said. "I think in the heat and then the reps I was 10 seconds back, and then today to come back and be right there basically within contact, that’s very encouraging. I think we have water to gain still so we’ll keep working, and hopefully that’ll be me next time."
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08/28/2014 10:44:20 PM