Four Golds; Two Silvers
Men's Eight:
Gold, and the threepeat. Four for four by Ahrens, and Cipollone, fourth medals for Kaehler, third for Kolpacks, 3-for-3 by Miller, Wherley, and Collins; growing collection for Volp (2 for 2), Welsh (2 for 2).
The moves:
- in third 500, "dedicated to our moms," according to Cip.
In the final 500, dedicated to Mike Teti. It broke the race open. The crew went almost four second faster than the silver medal Brits in the final 500. Great performance for the Brit crew, who have been getting question.faster all summer, and upped the ante here without question.
Late in the third 500, the British crew came charging hard, passing the US crew, and surprising them. "Cip called them five seats behind, then he called them two seats up," Wherley said. "Then we took our move for Mike."
The last 500 was later dedicated to Chris Ahrens mom, who was watching him race for the first time. Said Teti: " Chris Ahrens' mother is on the finish line, and it's the first time she's ever seen him race, that's for her." Nice gift, boy.
At 500 to go, the big one: for Teti. There'll be quotes aplenty on my NBC report on this move; I'll link it up here later.
Women's Eight:
Silver, but, like last year, charging hard at the finish line to come up short by 1.15 seconds. The Romanians pulled away a bit in the third 500, and the US crew couldn't quite make it up, even with the fastest final 500 of the race. Everybody I talked to in the crew still believes deeply that a gold medal is in reach, and seem motivated to do the work necessary to get it.
The crew was somewhat disappointed, but wasn't complaining about their silver medals; good to see it. Again, more quotes in the NBC report.
Lightweight women's double:
Silver, behind defending Olympic champ Romanians. The crew was put a little off their stuff by the howling headwind, and seemed taken out of the race in the first 500 by bad chop and a few shaky strokes.
The Romanians sounded extremely confident of their abilities after the race, almost predicting win in Sydney. Note that we were working in rough translation, and I suspect that they were slightly more gracious winners than the limited vocabulary could express.
The US crew sets their standards extremely high, such that a silver is a tremendous disappointment. Still, row2k congratulates the crew on their silver; that's two medals in two years. Great quote from Christine in the NBC commentary.
Lightweight men's double:
The crew placed sixth, but gave the fifth-place French a good race, as well as the Swiss Gier brothers. Coach Charley Butt was happy with these issues, although the distance to the frontrunners was fairly large. "I think they could have challenged for fourth, but the top three crews were out there. We did make some good improvements this past month, though, which is promising for next year."
Women's Quad:
Fourth place, but a fair distance out of the medals.
I didn't get a chance to talk to anyone from this crew, so am not sure how they felt about their race. I'm guessing they're somewhat disappointed, as medals were definitely in the plan, but remember that the crew has had a good summer, and won the Olympic qualifier spot.
Lightweight women's pair:
Gold medal for Linda and Rachel. Very intense race, final margin 0.61 to the British crew. There was a protest in the race, but it was rejected by FISA, and the results stand. The margin was likely never more than 2 seconds for the entire race, an utter gut check that the US led once in the third 500, and then trailed until about 10 strokes before the finish line. Thanks to this crew for making my Sunday just a little bit better.
Lightweight women's quad:
Gold medal for the US. If not dominated, certainly controlled throughout. Sherri Kiklas said she felt that the other crews, and Germany in particular, threatened their lead several times, but never put the US crew off their game.
"They would make a move, and we could answer," Kiklas said. After this happened several times, the crew gained confidence, and finally put the race away in the final 500.
Lightweight men's quad:
Sixth place. This crew struggled all summer, failing to make the final in Lucerne, so this result is an improvement, if not as good as last year's bronze. The crew looked ready to push through in the second 500, and was in the pack, but had a poor third 500, and despite a decent sprint, couldn't draw themselves back into the picture.
Men's Coxed four:
Gold Medal. These guys had the hammer down. A mix of vets and newcomers (Garrett Klugh was in last year's Fantasy 8; from Fantasy to gold medal, not bad), the four hung with the pack until their move at the 1000, and blasted fully out to open water.
"That was the race," said cox Sean Mulligan, whose college coach, Bob Ernst, was doing the announcing, and namechecked Sean 2-3 times. "The Romanians moved early, but when we took our move, we pushed out to open water. They came back a bit, but we knew we had it."
"They're making us look good," said coach Gavin White, who teamed up with Chris Clark on the crew.
That will do it for another Worlds; catch you in Sydney.
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