All fingers were crossed here on Monday morning, and the weather gods did not disappoint; racing started under bright sun with a light tail and some chop, then calmed down to near perfect conditions over the course of racing. Between the racing "leftovers" from yesterday and today's regular schedule, the folks here ran 43 races in 6 hours (a race every six minutes) with nary a hitch.
The racing itself, whether a result of athletes and crews blasting it after yesterday's delay or the fact that a lot of athletes are already thinking about London/2012, was fierce right from the get-go; the first race of the day, a one-to-advance heat in the women's quad, came down to 1/10th of a second between the GB and Germany, and the races stayed hot from there. (Incidentally, in a nice gesture, the regatta organizers honored any tickets for yesterday's abbreviated schedule for the racing today). A couple of people have mentioned that the 40-minute rides to the course on the team buses have gotten a lot quieter; folks definitely have their game faces on.
As we mentioned yesterday, the hometown team is amped to the gills; NZ crews won their heats in an astounding eight events here today, came within 0.02 seconds of winning a ninth in the Women's Single, and won the rep in the LW2x at the end of the day.
The US crews in action today enjoyed a solid, if not perfect day. Erin Cafaro and Susan Francia in the W2- started their 2010 Worlds where they left off in 2009, at the front of the pack. Cafaro & Francia won their heat and advanced directly to the A-Final; the NZ pair, winners of all of the Lucerne world cup during the season, won the other heat.
The US Men's pair of Ryan Monaghan and Deaglan McEachern also advanced directly to the semis today with a solid row.
US Men's lightweight rowing is on the upswing, and the Lightweight Men's 4- of Will Daly, Ryan Fox, Nick LaCava and Anthony Fahden rowed to a solid 2nd place and a direct slot in the semis today, skipping a trip to the reps in this event for the first time in quite some time. US coach John Parker of the Oklahoma City Training Center, who is sharing coaching duties for the light men with Bryan Volpenhein (amongst others) this year, observed that the times here are fast even with a slightly smaller entry; the US seems back in the thick of things.
Former Princeton coach Curtis Jordan is coaching the Australian Light men's eight here; Parker, the US Men's LM8+ coach is a Princeton grad, that's a lot of orange and black in that event.
US crews also showed well in the Men's & Women's doubles today; the men's duo of Warren Anderson and Glenn Ochal qualified comfortably for their semi with a solid 2nd place in their heat today, while the women's double of Katie Bertko and Stesha Carle, both silver medallists in the women's quad at Poznan last year, pushed the reigning world champs from Poland down the course in their heat before finishing 2nd; while Bertko and Carle are headed for the rep, they definitely have the speed to figure in the event.
Likewise, the US Men's Four of Silas Stafford, Sam Stitt, Henrik Rummel and Giuseppe Lanzone are headed to the rep after finishing 2nd in their heat, but speed-wise the crew is running near the front of the pack in their event.
The US Women's quad of Megan Kalmoe, Sarah Trowbridge, Natalie Dell and Margot Shumway rowed a strong race but suffered a little bobble about mid-race that cost them a few seconds; the crew battled back, but the progression was an unforgiving one-to-advance, so the crew will row in the rep, though not necessarily a bad thing for a relatively new lineup. Their counterparts in the US Men's Quad, Scott Gault, Elliot Hovey, Wes Piermarini and Will Miller are also headed to the reps after their heat today.
The US single scullers got themselves underway today, with Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg (LM1x) moving through to the semis directly today, while Julie Nichols (LW1x), Lindsay Meyer (W1x) and Ken Jurkowski (M1x) are all headed to the reps.
Racing in one of the deeper events at the regatta, the US Light Men's 2x of Brian de Regt and Jon Winter are headed to the reps as well.
Adaptive rowing also got underway today, with three events run in the mid-afternoon. The local organizers have done a nice job managing the transition from the 2k course to the 1k adaptive distance, with an outboard-engine powered starting platform that solves the floating start issues that have not been kind to the adaptive events at windy venues in the past.
Despite the cooler spring temps, the sun here sure beats down, holy smokes; between the incredibly clean/clear sky and the fact that New Zealand is affected by to the ozone hole over Antarctica, the UV exposure here is a lot higher than you might think; in summer, radio stations will actually give you a "burn time" for unprotected skin in addition to the weather report.
All UVs notwithstanding, row2k saw a set of pogies in a crew at the starting line today, not something you see at the worlds every year.
Finally, as comparatively remote as this location might seem, this is definitely a rowing place: if you look at Lake Karapiro on google maps, the satellite image shows an outrigger race in progress on the lake, nice!
Tomorrow's racing sees the first bigger batch of reps, including those for the open singles, racing for lanes in several events, as well as the hotly-anticipated heats in the men's and women's eights.
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11/01/2010 1:54:35 PM
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