Junior Worlds hustled to its conclusion a full day early, as promised back on Thursday when the weather forecast for Sunday turned grim. The US ended the compressed, condensed, and condensated (i.e. rainy) championships with one medal: gold in the Women's Coxed Four.
Keeping the 4+ Streak Goin'
The win in the W4+ extends a US streak in that event for a third year, and bow seat Ella Wheeler was aboard for her second win.
"The race went well and we're really proud of our execution," said Wheeler, who is headed to Cal in the fall.
"Coming back for a second year in the same boat class and with the same coach also helped give me the peace of mind and preparation for what international racing is like. It was such an exciting day and we were really honored to continue the USA's win streak in the 4+."
For the second year in a row, Skye Elliot, who heads up the junior women's team at CRI, coached the four, and his charges threw down again: after winning the 'race for lanes' earlier in the week, and then seeing Australia go for broke at the start of the final, the US crew stayed composed and methodical in the middle 1000 to pull away again, when it counted, and the Aussies' gambit was for naught when Italy caught them as well and grabbed the only other medal on offer in the three-boat final.
"We knew exactly how much we needed," said coxswain Lucy Herrick, "and we wanted to execute this race going into it."
"I’m really proud of the way we handled the entire 2000 meters. We knew the second 1k was going to be make or break especially going against crews as talented as Italy and Australia. We had to fight hard, but we committed to fighting for each other and ultimately I think that’s what made us successful."
While the crew did not hit the same heights as the US boat which set the World's Best U19 time in Varese last year with Wheeler--indeed, the Vaires-sur-Marne course was serving up no WBTs this week with its chunky water and crosswinds--the crew was fast enough that Herrick's hat fell off the back of her head during the race--that's hat-stealing speed!
(also, it is pretty rare that you get listed on the results sheet as the World Champs Best Time holder, the current World Champ, and the winner, so here is a link to the results sheet that Wheeler might want to print out and hold onto.)
Epic Eights Final
The US very nearly got another medal in the women's eight, a crew that got to the final via a win in the Rep and then used a mid race move that almost overhauled the leaders for a medal that could have been almost any color...only to be pipped at the line by a GB crew that answered the US move so well that they won the whole thing.
And it was CLOSE: just 0.24 sec from GB suddenly in 1st to the US in 4th, so four crews within half a canvas or less--and the Germans and Romanians, who had each taken a long turn out in front, sandwiched in the middle for silver and bronze.
You can see the photo finish, and catch a video of the finish itself here:
With that final surge by the British eight, by the way, every GB woman racing here went home with a medal: gold for the eight and double, silver for the four, and bronze for the quad. With GB's two junior men's medals--gold in the eight and silver in the quad--the British youngsters tied Italy atop the medal table, and did it across only 9 entries to Italia's full 14. Efficiency Trophy alert...
Tight Margins All Day for US
The US started the day with five crews racing morning semis just to even get in a position for a medal (three crews were already through to A Finals in semi-less events), and while only one made it through--the Women's Quad--every margin from the semis session was tight.
While that Women's Quad and Men's Coxed Four would finish out of the medals, like the Women's Eight, in the A Final round--both took 5th--the crews that headed to the B Finals were in it right to the end to start the day.
In fact, the four crews that just missed--Women's Single, Men's Quad, Women's Pair, and Men's Four--all came fourth by a combined total of just 4.23 seconds: 1.38 was the "biggest" margin, and the Men's Four missed out by just half a second.
That four came back just a few hours later to nearly win the B Final, before getting into another great duel with Croatia--a race that the Croatians took by just .02 seconds. Pretty good international speed for a quartet who all hails from the same club, which is not typically how the US puts together its four and eight oared crews at this level.
"For all of us this has been the highlight of our rowing careers," said bow man Cosmo Hondrogen afterwards.
"Being able to train all year together for the Varsity 8 at Oakland Strokes, then having the chance to race the straight four at trials and qualifying has been amazing. Competing at the international level is truly something else. All of our finishes have been within half a second of another crew. We beat Switzerland by 0.09 seconds for 2nd place in our heat, we missed out of the A final by 0.48 seconds to Hungary, and we got second in the B final to Croatia by 0.02 seconds.
"I think those close finishes are both a testament to the grit of the guys in our boat, as well as a testament to the incredible level of racing we are able to experience. With an average crew weight of about 160 pounds we were definitely one of, if not the smallest crew out there, so going into every race, we knew we would be the underdogs."
"All four of us are also pretty happy with being one of the top performing US boats on the men's side," Hondrogen added, "especially since this is the first year the straight four is a trials boat, and we're all from the same club."
About That Weather
Yeah, it wasn't great: after heat very nearly derailing U23s two weeks ago, we saw plenty of the opposite in France. Here we got cold, wind, and rain that ran from mild soaking to biblical torrent...this was kids out racing in as many layers as you might see at an early season Manny Flick, and even the backdrop banner at the medals stand had to come down by the time the eights victory ceremonies started.
There was no escaping the fact that the weather is a factor when it scrubs two whole days of racing: Wednesday's first round got canceled to the start the week, if you remember, and so when the call came down to compress things with no Sunday racing, folks in some events were already on a condensed schedule.
In the end, though, that racing did all fit in, the crosswind blowing through the finals seemed relatively fair, and the locals we talked to said this weather is pretty unusual for the area.
Still, a lot of eyes are on the venue a year out from the Paris Games and lot of folks planning to race here in a year's time for Olympic medals were seeing more white water than they might want to bargain for. This was the best Olympian comment we caught on social media:
Of course, this is not the first time a windy or wet Junior Worlds test event set off a full year's worth of worrying before things turning out pretty much just fine come Olympics time: 2003's images of kids swamping at Schinias had crews showing up for the Athens Games will all sorts of specially modified boats that were never really needed for the big show...so, sometimes that is just how it goes--and the water can be spectacular here as well.
Notes From the Course
That said, we were told there are 'vipers' in the grass at the finish line; i.e., venomous snakes. Nothing that rowers at Chula Vista or Natoma would be surprised, though, we suppose.
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