Racing for Pride in Lower Finals As anyone who has ever raced (and raced to win) in a petite final knows well, something a little less tangible than medals, but no less compelling, is on the line in a B or C final - pride.
The women's eight was a particularly brutal example - two boat race between Canada and the Netherlands, two programs with winning traditions in this event. Canada went out hard and established a 1.81 second lead by the first 500 - and won by 1.82. noone gives in.
The Egyptian men's eight was splashing and throwing their arms in the arm after finishing thurd in the B final - 9th of 12 overall - they kept celebrating all the way back to the dock. If 9th seems little reason for a celebration, consider this: save for a World Cup somewhere along the way, this is certainly the first Egyptian men's eight I can recall seeing in international competition, and certainly at a World Championships.
After a rough week with somewhat steep learning curves, both US lightweight doubles led their races post to post today. Although you'd always want to be in the final just above yours, it's not a terrible way to end the regatta, congrats.
Light Pair Off the Pace Their barnstorming of the US trials was an anomaly for the LM 2- this event hasn't been settled in two days or by less than a few feet in years. yet the Riverside pair broke the trials open from the first stroke two days running; I truly thought this boded well for a strong pair for Worlds. This marks two years running that the US LM2- has placed last in the event.
The last couple weeks at the World Championships are critical; you must not only race well, but you have to improve almost every day at the race course. It is a daunting task - the coach remains on land, there are boats stopping and starting all around you, the amount of wash is formidable. I could not say what happened with the US light pair, but i'm sure they're disappointed with today's result; best of luck to them in their training.
Final Medal Count | |||
Gold | Silver | Bronze | |
Germany | 5 | 1 | 2 |
Great Britain | 4 | 1 | |
Australia | 3 | ||
Ireland | 3 | ||
Italy | 2 | 3 | 3 |
France | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Romania | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Austria | 1 | ||
Hungary | 1 | ||
Norway | 1 | ||
Netherlands | 3 | 2 | |
New Zealand | 3 | ||
USA | 2 | 2 | |
Denmark | 2 | ||
Poland | 2 | ||
Belarus | 1 | 2 | |
Slovenia | 1 | 1 | |
Croatia | 1 | ||
Greece | 1 | ||
Russia | 1 | ||
Yugoslavia | 1 | ||
Czech Republic | 2 | ||
Argentina | 1 | ||
Canada | 1 | ||
Japan | 1 | ||
South Africa | 1 | ||
Switzerland | 1 |
It's a toss up as to whether doubling in the open and lightweight pair helped or hurt the US women's pair. In the early going of today's lw final, it may even have helped them- they looked crisp in the LW final today, jumping to an early lead. In an event that is final-only like the LW2-, it can be an extremely long two weeks in Europe - a few days racing might be just the thing to get rid of the butterflies and the burn that comes after rest. They'll have to wonder if all the racing, especially yesterday's open pair B final, cost them in the final strokes as the GBR drew even then snuck past shortly before the US lost a little composure and hit a buoy with 2-3 strokes to go. The GBR already had the lead when the US hit the buoy, but it certainly didn't help them.
Radical Lineup Change Results in Medal The Japanese lightweight men's quad made a wholesale lineup change, moving the dude with the serious afro from stroke into three, the two man up to stroke, and the three man back to two.
Irish Eyes Smiling Again Today Of three gold medal threats from the Emerald Isle, all three took the yellow - LW1x and LW1x yesterday, and the lightweight men's pair today. In all three cases, the crew threw down, absolutely outrowing all comers.
The team seems pretty tight - the lw men's single sculler leapt into the water when the Irish 2- was just about to dock, almost flipped the pair, and laid his head in the lap of his teammates, ecstatic at their mutual victories.
I'm told also that the Irish LW women's sculler who won gold yesterday has been rowing for only two years. As simple as this sport is in many ways, it is extremely rare to see someone come on that strong. Is there something in the national character that makes these lightweights so formidable?
New World Record The Australian LW women's quad broke their own world record of 6:31.51, set in the heats here, to set a new world record of 6:29.68 in the final. The US crew's 6:32 beat the record of 6:33 that stood before the start of these Worlds.
Olympic Gold Medalists Dethroned The Polish double seemed unbeatable this year, running a juggernaut campaign at Henley. The Italians weren't phased, however, and blew the race open from the start leaving the Poles to battle for the silver, which they won over
Danes Fall to Austrians Despite their bronze medal last year in Sydney, it appeared that the Danish LW four was back on track as their standard, indomitable selves. But the Austrian lightweights have shown they've never been afraid of duking it out with the Danes, and today they came through, taking the gold away from a very confident and explosive Danish crew. The lightweight four gets more interesting, tighter, and tougher to win all the time.
Women's Quad Makes Medals After seeing the medal stand tantalizingly within reach the past couple years, the US women's quad grabbed a bronze today the hard way, rowing from fifth up into a very solid third. The crew's plan to go a little harder and little faster each 500 paid off well in fast conditions.
Never Trust the Electronics Just before the 500 meters gone mark, the coxbox in the Australian women's eight quit. The crew was ahead, and could see where they were, but executing the race plan became a matter of creative teamwork. The crew started calling moves among themselves "let's go now middle four," and come the final 250, when the crowd made the coxswain completely impossible to hear, the crew went on instinct. Very impressive win, especially under the circumstances.
US Women's Eight Before the regatta began, I was pondering the fate of the women's eight, and came up with the formula that fifth or better was a success. Today, the women rowed from fifth into fourth, and gave a damn good run at a bronze. Fourth hurts, I know too well having finished fourth twice in my international career, but in my humble estimation, this crew and their coach, who started his job as head coach only on June 1 this year, did a superb job at this Worlds.
US Men's Eight One couldn't help hoping that last year's snake-bitten injury-plagued Olympic campaign was just a blip, and that the US men would return to form this year to take the gold medal. It wasn't to be, but the coaches' commitment to an almost completely new crew despite the presence of some seasoned team members in the men's four was courageous, and although it resulted in two fourth place finishes, one can only hope it pays off down the line.
Something else to ponder in this event; as amazing as it seems, excepting the last three Olympics (which were won by the GB ('00), the Dutch ('96), and Canadian Eights ('92)), the win by Romania marks the first time since 1986 that the World Championship in the M8+ has not been won by either the USA ('87,'94,'97-'99) or Germany ('89-'91,'93,'95). The last crew other than these two countries to win the eight? Australia at Nottingham in 1986, with current USA M4- coach Jimmy Tompkins aboard.
Germany Back on Top as Squad After last year's descent almost into oblivion, Germany is back to take the team trophy this year. The top of the list:
Germany 70
Italy 67
GBR 60
USA 56
Romania 43
France 41
Australia 40
Netherlands 35
Ireland 24
Germany led the medal count with 5 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze; the USA finished in the middle of the pack with two silver and two bronze.
QUOTES: LW2- Sarah Birch, bow GBR gold When did you know you were going to win? "We've been quite confident with what we've been doing at the training camps, and when we came here we just knew when we were on the stake boat this morning.. we knew if we had our best race that we'd get what we deserved."
For a crew that led only for about 4 strokes (albeit the last four), this is quite confident!
M4+ Sydney Chouragui, FRA stroke -gold "We wanted it! We started off behind and we knew we could come back whenever we wanted. We did a great push at the 750 mark and it went well. We did what we wanted, and it was good.
"We believed in it right from the start. Even if we were behind at the start, we knew we could get them. We increased the pace, and came back."
FRA cox Christophe Lattaignant: I told them to put in all the energy they could, and as soon as we heard we were off, it was bowball to bowball. And I think all of a sudden they heard all the noise, and we got the bowball in front, and Gilles Bosquet said "we're in front," and the pace just increased and increased."
LM4- Martin Kobau Austrian gold medallist "I really do not know what happened yet. We got through the finish and I just looked back, we were not ever sure that we had passed the finish line at first. We did a very good tactic before the race so each one of us knew what we had to do during the race and each one of us did exactly that. I can't believe that we won, our dream was a medal and now we are World Champions!"
On beating the Danish and French crews: "It's unbelievable. We did a very good job in the semifinals, but I don't think that we dreamed of the gold medal. We were dreaming maybe for a bronze."
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