Tuesday
Today, the first day of reps, dominated by a strong quartering headwind from lane 6, there were a couple disappointments: the women's straight four failed to advance and was eliminated, and the women's single (Leslie Rawley) failed to make the semifinal. However, Jamie Koven raced fairly easily into a semifinal group that will not include Canadian Derek Porter, who failed to make the semis after leading his rep for over 1500 meters. The lead changed hands three times in the final 500 meters, with the Norwegian pulling through the German in the final strokes, both advancing. . US FPL1x Sherri Kiklas won her rep, and the US open men's double and straight four also advanced with good races, with the double winning their rep, and the four placing second..
The headwind continues unabated; yesterday afternoon, after the final heats, lots of backstays were off, with coaches wielding tape measures and pitch meters, increasing spread (one must suppose) to lighten the load for the headwind. Others sat tight, as for the first several days of the regatta, we came down to different conditions for almost every practice.
In a couple races, the start was possibly compromised during the long pause after the word Attention in the starting commands. After "Attention," the start could come at any time: a red light comes on (there is a set of lights in each lane), then, after a variable pause, a green light accompanied by a beep starts the race. So, during the "variable pause," crews are rightfully reluctant to correct their course, as the light could go green at any instant. During the longer pauses, at least a couple crews, especially those out in the windier Lane 1, were blown off their points by the quartering wind. A couple ended up in the buoys for the first several strokes, to considerable ill effect.
Reps continue tomorrow, followed by semifinals on Thursday and Friday. The live TV coverage begins during the semis; if you have a satellite dish or some other way of accessing international signals, you might want to poke around a bit for the feed.
Monday
Yeah, eights.
After the first two days of racing, all heats, the crews from der homeland (that's the USA to you, folks) hadn't done too badly at all, danke, with victories in all three 8s, as well as the lightweight men's single (James Martinez), the lightweight women's double (Sara Garner and Christine Collins), a row-from-behind victory in the open men's pair (Adam Holland and Cyrus Beasley), and a semi-qualifying race in the women's double. All other crews went to the reps, but not without some inspiring performances, including the men's straight four's late challenge to the famed British straight four.
Sunday
Today was the first day that all the competitors were onsite, and the traffic was truly astounding. Not more tan 2-4 lengths of clear water ever appeared to be available on the course.
But enough of this local color, let's get to the GOSSIP:
Folks choice of heats they want to go watch points to the development of some nascent romances, but, as a member of the delegation, I'm held to FISA rules, and can't divulge any more than that.
The demand for the row2k dialup laptop is intense; one person suggested that I set up a signup sheet. Adam Holland's diaries on rowersworld come to you courtesy of said laptop - as do Uber Ruder's.
Code word for a night on the town: "Who's being bad tonight?" the same hands seem to shoot up nightly…
Chris Milliman of the Independent Rowing News arrived yesterday, sporting a very Germanic, bushy goatee and an ubermongo telephoto lens. The goatee beats the soul patch he was working for a few months this year…
There's talk of a coaches 8 row; all we need is a coxswain… Women's coach lori Dauphiny might do the job "she has the voice," as one coach said, and crews from countless other countries who have heard her from the shore will agree…
Mike Teti saw Kris Korzenoiwski, and said "There he is, the Master. Here we are, all of your students." Kris replied, "Ah, this is very satisfying."
After an initial rule that only one coach per crew would be able to follow each race, the organizing committee made arrangements for the coaches to use one side of the course to follow on bicycles. The course is ringed by a bike path, which the contigent of US coaches, all outfitted with rented bikes and red rainjackets, has turned into a sea of swerving red race fans. Encouragement in countless languages rings from the pelaton for every race…
Lots of new haircuts to start off the regatta; long hair US LM John Cashman cut off his foot-long ponytail back in Princeton; the Canadian lightweight 8 sported a couple tight cuts; and of course, there's the French LM4-, which sports one red, one white, and one blue 'do each. This is a job for a 2+ (three people, you see…)
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: