The semis of the women's and men's doubles, the light men's four, and the men's and women's singles were contested today as well. The US had crews in only the women's single and double, but there was a lot of interesting stuff going on all around; read on.
Women's 2x
In a fierce race that had all six doubles within 2/3 length at the 1000, New Zealand put the hammer down almost immediately across the 1000, and things stretched out - and then they tightened up again. The US was charging on the field all the way to the line, and in a photo finish across four lanes finished fifth, only 1.49 seconds from second (results with splits here). The crew will race in the B final on Monday to go for a top 11 finish to qualify the boat for Rio.
Men's Double
The men's double has been almost wholly owned by the Croatian Sinkovic brothers, and they won their semi again today. But if you look at the times across the two semis, the event looks a heckuva lot tighter than it did last year. The Sinkovic double had the fastest time in 6:10.45, and then there six crews under 6:12.96 (including the Italians, who did not make the A final). That is a serious pack, and the final could be awesome.
The US men's double placed second in their C/D semifinal, and will race in the C Final tomorrow.
Light Men's Four
We'd noted a few days ago how deep the lightweight events are nowadays, and the Light Men's Four was no exception today, as both semis were screaming. The biggest surprise is probably the speed of the Swiss crew, who threw down the fastest time today. The Swiss have good recent success in the lightweight events (last year's world champs light pair is in the boat this year), and they have been knocking on the during the World Cup season. The final will be a heater.
The US Crew placed 6th in their semi, and will race the B Final on Sunday.
Men's Single
In the men's single, Mahe Drysdale is looking extremely solid, to the extent that his historically "slippy" front end (a common feature of many successful single scullers' styles, as each develops a unique way to deal with the significant load at the front end) is looking much more locked on and sturdy this year. He advanced with the fastest time of the day, a solid 6:45 in not-so-fast conditions.
Also of note was 2000 Double Sculls bronze medalist and 2004 and 2008 Single Sculls gold medalist Olaf Tufte's advancement through the same semi at the age of 39; Tufte also rowed in the Atlanta Olympics '96, so has nominally qualified for his sixth Olympics today. Impressive.
US single sculler Ken Jurkowski finished sixth in his C/D semi today, and will progress to the D final.
Women's Single
US sculler Gevvie Stone booked herself a spot in the A final and the US a spot at Rio next year with a really solid and almost professional-looking row.
"We couldn't have asked for better conditions today," she said. "Flat water, and the camera crews were surprisingly courteous about the wakes. I was able to get off the line with the pack - an accomplishment for me - and benefited from that side by side energy. I got into a rhythm with a solid lock on the water at base speed. When I looked over at 1000m and saw that I was roughly even with Magdi (Austrian sculler Magdalena Lobnig), I felt good about the race and confident that I could finish top three; it was a really nice moment. From there on, I executed the way I wanted and held on to that top three spot."
As for how much thought she was giving to locking down the qualifying spot, Stone admitted it was an important motivator today, to the extent that her prerace preparation included visualization work focused on Rio.
"Rio has been a major motivation since the regatta started and especially today," she said. "Having failed to qualify at the 2011 World Champs and having been through the "Last Chance Regatta," I did not want to do that again. I thought about Rio during visualization pre-race - making it the focus on my last 500 - and during the race. It feels great and more than a little relief to have qualified and to have that box checked! It adds to the joy that this is my first Worlds A final; now, I get to have fun out there on Sunday!"
Australian sculler Kim Crow remains the putative favorite; although the field was not that far behind her at the finish line, the race data shows she rowed much of the race at 30 strokes per minute, so it is fair to assume we haven't seen her best yet – and that her best will be good.
Other than Crow, inspiring races from Canadian Carly Zeeman and a workaday win by Jungli Duan of China stood out today; the A final is going to be a zinger, and the B final could be even more deadly given that only nine Rio spots total are available, whew.
Comments | Log in to comment |
There are no Comments yet
|
row2k's Worlds coverage is brought to you in part by:
row2k's Worlds coverage is brought to you in part by: