Nick Trojan was crossing into the final stretch of his quarterfinal lightweight single race Wednesday afternoon, pushing for a chance to advance into the semifinal when he suddenly went from feeling good to thinking his chance at taking a qualifying spot had ended.
"I felt really good for the first half, and things were going really well up until I got to the 1500 and then I just hit a huge wall," Trojan said. After racing in third and holding onto the last of three qualifying position, Brazil's Uncas Batista passed him just about in front of the grandstands.
Trojan said he was certain that Batista, who was rowing in the next lane over, had passed him and that he was headed for the C/D semifinal. "I really thought Brazil had passed me," Trojan said. "I had nowhere else to go but just finish the race and be happy with the summer I had."
He crossed the finish believing that. But what he didn’t know, and didn’t see happen, was Slovenia's Rajko Hrvat flipped his single and dropped from leading the race to in the water. He did not finish the race, moving everyone in front of him up one spot, putting Trojan in the A/B semifinal.
"Today, I just got really lucky," Trojan said. "I had no idea that he had flipped, and then Nick (his coach Nick D’Antoni) told me what happened about five minutes after the race. Then I had different level of energy and a better mood. But I better be ready for the semi."
Lucky or not, Trojan was one of five US athletes to advance on the fourth day of racing at the 2017 World Rowing Championships at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, FL, Wednesday. Also, moving on was women's single Felice Mueller, men's para single Blake Haxton, the men's double, and the women's four.
Also racing Wednesday was men's single sculler Michael Clougher. He finished fifth in his quarterfinal.
Wednesday marked the half way point of the regatta. Thursday's schedule has 11 A/B semifinals and the repechages for both the US men's and women's eights.
Men's Arms and Shoulders Single (PR1)
With para rowing equipment, finding just the right rigging is a little more complicated than getting the rigging right in a shell used by able body athletes. The FISA safety rules dictate that the pontoons on either side on the hull have to be touching the water when the boat is not moving.
In the Tuesday heat, Haxton said that his pontoons were set lower than they needed to be, increasing the drag factor of the shell. An adjustment before today's race helped Haxton row well ahead of the field to win his rep and advance in the Friday semifinal.
"We realized the pontoons were an inch too low," he said. "They were still legal today, but (Tuesday) we rowed with them down a notch too low, so we adjusted them and it was basically free speed.
"I always feel like our greatest handicap between Pat (coach Pat Kington) and I is stupidity," Haxton joked. "And it strikes again. But we're getting better, so we'll see what happens on Friday."
Women's Four
On Monday, the US women's four of Kendall Chase, Erin Reelick, Kristine O'Brien, and Molly Bruggeman missed advancing from the heat Monday, but did not miss Wednesday, leading their rep from start to finish.
"We really wanted to work on a couple of things from our first race," said Reelick. "And I think we improved from our heat. In our heat, we were a little bit high so we were working on keeping it a little more controlled and focus on power per stroke.
"It was a solid start and we were pretty neck and neck with everyone across for the most part. Once we settled to our base, we took a couple of seats and you could kind of see the field behind us.
"Through the thousand, I'm pretty sure Canada and The Netherlands started to walk back, but we started to respond with a little bit more swing and a longer stroke, so it was a really tough second thousand, holding them off throughout."
Chase noted that having two crews battling behind for the second of two qualifying spots can be a danger to the crew in first.
"When it's top two to qualify, and the two boats behind are fighting for second place and are neck and neck, they're pushing each other. Meanwhile you're just trying to stay out in front with the lead," Chase said.
"We haven't been together all that long, so every time we go down the course in a race it's another opportunity to practice with each other and get more familiar. I'm excited for the final."
Men's Double
Another US crew that had to come through the reps to advance was the men's double with Ben Davison and John Graves. Like the four, they didn't waste the chance, taking the lead from the start and holding off charges from Canada and The Netherlands, who claimed the second of the two available advancing slots.
"We got a very tough draw in the rep; there were a lot of good crews and it was sort of like a semi," Graves said. "We basically were facing elimination out there. We tried not to think about that too much and we wanted to be a little bit more aggressive in the middle.
"We got out to a little bit of a lead and it felt like we were controlling the piece," he said. "But Canada and The Netherlands were coming superfast at the end. Those are really, really fast doubles. We felt really fortunate to progress over those guys."
Women's Single
Felice Mueller was disappointed in her opening race and missed out of advancing directly into the semifinal. Wednesday, Mueller got out from the start and stayed there, keeping the field of Spain, China and The Bahamas comfortably behind her. China's Duan Xingli is no slouch, having won Olympic bronze in this event at Rio last year, but finished behind both Mueller and the Spanish sculler today, and is bound for the C/D Semis.
Notes From The Course
Kristine O'Brien did her best imitation of a baseball player waving off a teammate to get under a fly ball just off the recovery dock when water bottles were tossed to the crew just after they raced Wednesday. Good thing they are rowers: Check out the series of photos starting here, and be sure to keep going on to the next page, you'll thank us.
The local organizing committee has been going all out this week to have a variety of fan experiences and entertainment between racing, including baby tigers, live bands, sand sculpting clinics and daily visits from local school children. On Wednesday Miss Florida Sara Zeng visited the park and was a favorite for photo ops.
Also on hand to be recognized Wednesday were members of the US military.
Where else but in Florida would owning a golf cart could be combined with owning an antique car - or a replica of one anyway.
Overheard in the press tent from a volunteer, "Norway must be winning, the cowbells are going crazy."
The heat can make people sleepy, apparently.
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