Racing on the Paris Olympic course has been harrowing and hurried: with Sunday looming as unrowable and all remaining racing being crammed into Friday and Saturday as covered yesterday, crews were scheduled to come down on 5 minute centers, pretty much all day.

(And the schedule for Saturday's racing has been amended again...more on that below, but here is the latest iteration of the race times, which must be at least Plan C or D by now).

Friday's changes called for the five minute centers, and a lot of crews going direct from quarterfinals and reps to same-day C and D Finals based on times--and with a quick turnaround. At least, that was the plan for most of the programme, until what had been perhaps the best day for racing--calm at the start with a building tailwind down the course--erupted into maybe the craziest thunderstorm row2k has ever seen a regatta soldier through.

During the truly wild rain/wind/thunder/lightning/hail storm that careened through the few remaining C finals at the end of the program, the crews were sent down the racecourse in immediate succession; all the crews were already up at the start gathering for the racing, and races were already on the course, so it was determined that the fastest way to clear the course was to race down the course. At one point there were at least three and maybe even four races on the course.

The US Women's Double--Peyton Balazy and Avery Packard--finished their C Final just ahead of the full downpour.

As luck would have it, they were all small boat races, too: the doubles and singles, and included the USA's Henry Davison, who truly came down the course in the teeth of the storm to win his C Final by inches over the sculler from Brazil.

"Those conditions were cataclysmic," Davison said afterwards. "The referee sent us out in a quick start since there was lighting flashing in the distance and I got off the line quickly, wanting to put the storm behind me, but it inevitably caught up at 1k and started to downpour.

"The rain turned to hail, and the wind couldn't decide on a direction, so it was just gusting all over the place. Both the Dutch single and I almost got swept out of our respective lanes. The hail was slamming into the water, so it was almost totally white from all the splashing.

"At one point, I lost sight of the lane markers. Nevertheless I finished the race in first, and the officials started screaming at us to get to the docks, I think I pulled up the dock at a 30 stroke rate."

Davison edging out Brazil's Daniel Passold Filho

"That race really brought a whole new meaning to 'row through the finish line,'" said Davison, who had already raced his quarterfinal earlier in the morning on the compressed schedule.

In winning the C Final, Davison made up an impressive gap from the quarterfinal times on the Latvian sculler, who wound up just behind Brazil in third; the Dutch sculler Davison was keeping an eye on took fourth--but it certainly sounded like Davison, last year's Youth Singles Champ at the Charles, was racing the storm as much as anything down the track.

You can see what Davison was up against in this World Rowing Instagram reel:

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We don't think it was a very ASMR experience for the athletes racing home though, whew.

More Schedule Changes

As noted above, we have another new Saturday schedule, so folks setting alarm clocks to watch races--and the video coverage should start tomorrow, as originally planned--should take note of the new times here. The "Schedule" tab on the main World Rowing site will have the most up-to-date info should things change again; the times there are conveniently adjusted for your time zone, but we are not able to link directly to that tab.

The new-new Saturday schedule does give the crews racing morning semis a bit more time between races, but not much: the program still ends with the marquee eights and singles events in the prime slots, which means the pairs will have just two hours between their semi and final before the medals ceremonies start to expand that gap somewhat for the quads and doubles.

That tight squeeze will involve the US women's pair, which won their rep today to grab a spot in the A/B Semi; tomorrow they will see two of the fastest pairs, Romania and France, in an 8:30 heat, racing for a spot in a 10:35 Final.

USA W2-, Annika Nelson and Caroline Krantz

In all, five of the American crews still in the running will be racing twice tomorrow: the Women's Single, Men's Four, and both quads also have morning semis ahead of them before to sort out their final.

For single sculler Annalise Hahl, the compressed, race more than once schedule may be a bit of an advantage...in any event, it will certainly feel familiar to Hahl, a World Beach Sprints medalist last year, who is used to racing the multiple rounds of a beach sprints final.

Hahl, the 2022 Beach Sprints bronze medalist

Hahl--in addition to being pretty good at podium handstands--is the first US athlete to compete at both a 'traditional' and beach sprints World Championship in the same year. (Her teammate on this year's Beach Sprints team, Christine Cavallo, has done both Senior Worlds and Beach Sprints, but not in the same season.)

Pending the results of those semis, the only other US crews with a shot at the medals tomorrow will be the Women's Eight, victors in the Rep on Friday, and the two coxed Fours.

USA Women's Eight, on course for the A Final

The Men's Eight, after a week of medical substitutions that saw them race both the heat and Fridays' rep without stroke man Lucas Liow, came home fifth in the four-to-advance Rep and are now out of the racing. Six seat Tyler Murphy moved up to fill Liow's spot, with the spare Luke Taylor coming into the three seat, and the crew certainly went for it, coming off the line at 49 and never rating below 40, but the Czechs and Italians grabbed the last two spots behind Romania and Germany.

Rounding out the Friday results of the 12 US crews, both the Men's Pair and Women's Double each took 4th in their respective C Finals on Friday, for 16th place overall.

US M2-, James Dodman and Maxwell Burget

Notes from the Course

• It turns out that the much commented upon and uber-rustic toilets we mentioned in Wednesday evening's report are actually just as intended as part of an ambitious composting and recycling effort; even the seemingly ramshackle wooden construction is intended to avoid any use of plastic at all and to use regenerative materials whenever possible. From there, all the waste is composted; we didn't post a photo of the interior, but essentially you are to cover up everything with wood shavings, and it eventually is composted and returned to the ecosystem. We know this because the inventor of the outhouses is on site telling folks about the program, how it works, and what to do after asking if they need to 'pee or to poo.' We are also told by a dog-loving coach that 'he has a really nice dog.' (As it happens, it comes to mind that we saw a similar set-up in Aiguebilette during the 2015 Worlds, with similar instructions, so it is a French thing for sure.)
  
  There are also a couple of folks dressed in costumes made to look like trash encouraging people to recycle, reduce use, reuse, making jokes, and generally entertaining folks while sharing their message of sustainability.
  

• Before their rep, the US M8 pulled into their lane, then had to pull away, turn around, and go bow first into the dock to get a non-working GPS replaced, then turn around again to get into their lane, pulling into the boot only to have it malfunction and need a reset. That after having two medical substitutions earlier in the week during training, which was down to one today--the stroke of the eight, as mentioned above. You have to be able to shake this stuff off if you want to put yourself in an A final and a position to win a championship, but geesh.
  GPS pit stop, ugh...

• When the storm hit during those last C Finals, WorldRowing's statement said "The boats on the water will race down the course to evacuate due to a thunderstorm coming. Boating is stopped." And: "Do not shelter in temporary tents or structures in storms."

• On this last point, the row2k photographers were trying to get photos of the last race, but had to leave the finish line tent, then had to leave the finish line area altogether with the crews in the last race about 25 strokes away. Explaining that if the kids had to race, we wanted to try to honor their effort with the photos, and one volunteer said, 'I am a coach, I understand,' pulled out an umbrella, and covered us while taking the last photos as hail clanged off the metal lens cover. Merci, coach!
  Scene during the final race of the day