The US Lightweight Women's Pair, Women's Double, and Men's Eight used their second full pull down the course to create today's highlights for the US.
The LW2- won silver, the W2x grabbed a Finals berth in their semi, and the M8 saw off Germany to make their Final just behind the Dutch on this Friday of Worlds.
In the other semis today, for the Single, Double and PR1 M1x, the US did not make it through: the M2x finished sixth today, Andrew Mangan 5th in the PR1 M1x, and Ben Davison took 5th in the M1x behind Ziedler of Germany, Thomas of Britain, Parry of New Zealand, and Arakawa of Japan.
All the finals today were for non-Olympic/Paralympic Lightweight and Para events, and the LW2- led the way, delivering on the promise of their preliminary race--where they closed on Italy down the stretch--to lock up the only US medal of the day.
The rest of the Friday Lightweight Finals saw the American crews--the LM2-, LM4x, and LW4x--off the pace and out of the medals. In fact, apart from the Light Women's Single, we got a full-on Italian sweep of the lightweight events contested today. Romania's Ionela Cozmiuc gave us the only break from Il Canto degli Italiani when she overtook Martine Veldhuis of the Netherlands in the last 500 of the LW1x. Jackie Kiddle of New Zealand took third after holding an early lead, winning herself a medal in the single ahead of contesting the B final in the double tomorrow.
In the Para Finals for the US, Russell Gernaat raced to 5th in the PR2 M1x, Jennifer Fitz-Roy took 4th in the four boat PR2 W1x, and Pearl Outlaw and Todd Vogt finished 5th in the PR3 Mixed 2x.
Mary Jones Nabel and Jimmy McCullough wrapped up their Worlds today as well: Jones Nabel 4th in the B Final of the LW1x and McCullough 5th in the C Final of the LM1x.
Silver Medalists: USA! - Light Women's Pair
In the Light Women's Pair, Elaine Tierney and Solveig Imsdahl established their spot on the podium early, putting Germany behind them with a fierce start, even as Italy shifted into a gear they had kept in reserve perhaps during the preliminary race to seal up the win.
"We had an aggressive start," said Imsdahl. "It was just a good piece all around; every part of it was solid. We stayed aggressive the whole time.
"We were still internal, but we were working off the other crews and were excited to try to stick with Italy, and then we started push off Germany in the middle. We made some nice moves."
"We just built off the last race really well," added Tierney, "and made it a bit more aggressive. You have to watch the other crews, when everyone's learned from that first race."
When asked about the best part of winning a silver medal at Worlds, Imsdahl said, laughing, "Now we don't have to buy any souvenirs."
Women's Double - to A Final
The US Women's Double might have had their bow in a qualifying spot for only a handful of stokes, but they grabbed that lead at the right end of the course, snatching the last spot in the A Final from Ukraine in a thrilling go-for-broke sprint. What got them through?
"I decided we weren't going to the B Final," said stroke seat Sophie Vitas, who already has a World Cup bronze in this event this year.
In the end, that determination--and the base speed that got the duo back into the fight through the middle of the piece-was enough.
"We did not have the start we wanted," added Kristi Wagner, "and it took a little while to find our rhythm, but when we did, I could tell we were moving."
In the race, the Romanians went to the front and Ukrainians made a bid for second, only to get overhauled by Austria's Lobnig sisters--and left vulnerable to the American charge. The Romanians won, ahead of the fray, and Austria held on to second by just over a second.
For the record--and you can read the tale of the tape here--the USA went from 6th at the 500 to 5th at the 1000 to 4th at the 1500 before dropping the fastest final 500 of any boat in the field to get right were they needed to be--3rd--at just the right time.
Sunday's Final will be the second A Final in as many years for Wagner, who reached the final in Tokyo last year with then-partner Gevvie Stone, and the first Worlds final for Vitas since racing in the US Women's Eight in 2017.
Men's Eight - to A Final
In the US Men's Eight Rep, Germany's Deutschland-Achter poured a lot into their attempt to make the Eights final--and preserve a streak that goes back to 1999--but the Dutch had already grabbed first right from the jump, and the US pushed away as well. What had looked like a German bid to steal a march on the US crew fell apart once the Americans got into their base pace. By the thousand, the US had locked up the advancing spot, and the Germans were off to their first B Final of the century.
"Our whole plan was to go out there and lay down the fastest piece that we could," said coxswain Jimmy Catalano. "We wanted to be out during the race and just start attacking the middle 1000.
"There was a point where I kind of lost track of where the Germans were. I knew they were behind us and I knew that we were good for the final, but that's not good enough: you've got to be excellent. So we just kept going after the Dutch."
The Dutch crew clung doggedly to their lead, though; the US turned up the heat and closed to a half length or less, but the Dutch held them off to the the line.
"We wanted to put pressure on them," said Catalano. "We really wanted to win that race. It didn't work out in the end, but we feel like we still have places to go and we're going to get faster.
"Today, we lengthened to our rhythm and it was just mean. We felt we could control this race - go out there and be the US Men's Eight."
The Eights Final will see the US line up against Britain, Canada, the Dutch, Australia and Romania. Germany will watch from the sidelines, another misstep in what has become a chaotic Worlds for the Germans--and which included a medical substitution into the eight just ahead of the reps--and so will the Italians, despite having "stacked" their eight with a number of their heavy hitters.
Para Finals
The first of the Para finals today mark the 20th Anniversary of Para rowing as a regular part of the championship program, dating back to the Seville Worlds in 2002. The events have changed, as detailed by World Rowing here, and the number of events, para-athletes and even the race distances have grown over the years, to a full 2k.
The three US Para athletes racing today had only preliminary races before today, and Russell Gernaat in the PR2 M1x looked to have the best chance to medal on the strength of his third place row in the Prelim.
Today, though, Gernaaat took fifth in the race for medals, but the 4-time National Teamer and 2020 Paralympian was proud of the effort and knew today was just not his day. This was his first Worlds race in the single and, he admitted, "I'm just trying to figure out this event."
"We're still trying to figure out my rigging in this boat," Gernaat said. "One of the biggest challenges is that I have really long legs, which puts me behind the pin. So we've been working on how do I get into the pin without my knees being up in my face. You'll see we put extenders on the rigger, to move the pin towards the bow."
"So that's part of it: we're still trying to figure that out, but I mean, no excuses. I caught a blade about five times coming down the course, and I attribute that to not being able to pull it off. But, you know, 'Row Better!' As my coach says: Pretty rowing is faster."
Gernaat is a bit like many of the athletes here who are racing Worlds in a different boat class here at the start of the Paris 2024 cycle.
"I like to be like in a team boat: I want to be with other people working together for the the gold. That is the goal, but for now it's back to the drawing board. We can still work out a lot of stuff in the single which is why we focused on it this year. How do I fix me? All so I can do better in the double."
In Other News, With Other Crews
Up Next
Worlds Saturday brings us to the Finals in the Pairs, Light Doubles, Fours, and Quads, along with two Paralympic events: the PR2 Mix 2x and PR3 Mix 4+.
The US will have Women's Pair, Light Women's Double, and the Para Four in A Finals tomorrow, racing for medals.
Saturday starts up at 10 am local time, so you can sleep in til 4 am on the East Coast (and catch things at 1 am out west).
Notes From the Course
Foggy Start: Temps under 40 (Fahrenheit) Thursday night and the deep trough of warm water that is the Racice race course combined for some truly epic fog, as you can see at the start of the Friday Scene galleries.
Open, Closed, Open, Closed, Open? The fog meant the course was closed to practicing crews this morning, but then it was opened, then quickly closed as the first few crews vanished into the re-thickening fog. It then nearly opened and then shut down again, leading to heaps of crews lined up to launch, using chairs as makeshift slings while they waited, and the Aussie W8 got as far as to get in their boat and to shove before being pulled back in and told to wait. Meanwhile the first crews to launch had disappeared into the fog and got in a full trip.
Truth in Advertising: The Italian women's unis say “Never Stop” on the sides, pretty accurate, whew.
Serious About Development: FISA pours a lot of time and coaching expertise into the athletes who are here from their Development Program. The athletes, coaches, and team managers have been kept nearly as busy with clinics and lessons as they have been with racing, and the athletes are doing testing to set benchmarks that can guide their training--to include a 2k erg just 2 hours after final...that meant that the three Light Men's scullers who raced the E Final yesterday from Georgia, Palestine, and Sri Lanka all hopped on ergs together pretty soon afterwards.
Giant Talking Heads: A number of familiar faces are showing up on the massive video boards, as World Rowing records and airs stand-up interviews around the venue. Among today's stars? Emily Delleman and Grace Joyce of the US Women's Quad and longtime USRowing and FISA official and PNRA chief Kris Grudt--and if you think it is strange seeing a neighbor's face blown up to jumbotron size, you're right.
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