Day 2 kept delivering the unexpected, and the coastal rowers kept handling it.
On our short list for today? Jumped slides thanks to landing hard on the back of a wave, a gusty crosswind that kept picking boats up and making the buoy turns even trickier, a bow-man dismount in one Mixed Quad that went wrong enough that the coxswain jumped out an took over as the rower got sucked under the riggers, and--for good measure--a full 360 degree crab/oar flip that the rower caught without missing a beat.
In the four medal rounds today--which include, as we mentioned yesterday, running 8 crews through head-to-head knockout races in less than an hour, both Tunisia and Spain won 2 golds each.
Tunisia's Junior Women's sculler Hela Belhaje Mohamed repeated as champion, and the nation added a second gold today when Mohamed Rayen Hafsa outlasted the Dutch, French, and even the home "beach" favorite from Britain, Matthew Cox.
Add in Spain's wins in the Mixed Double and Mixed Quad--repeat wins for the double of Ander Martin and Esther Briz Zamorano and four of the five athletes in the quad--and it would seem the Mediterranean countries do have a bit of a jump on coastal thus far in the two year history of these championships.
The USA collected two bronzes as both Brian O'Leary in the Junior Single and the Mixed Coxed Quad rallied from losses in their semis to win their two-boat bronze medal finals. Both bronzes came at the expense of a French entry, one Mediterranean nation that did not fare as well despite making it to the final four in three events today -though the French did pick up a bronze in Mixed Double over Canada.
The other USA athlete to make it to the final eight and get a quarterfinal shot today was Britt Wotokovich, who gave it her all in a tough draw against the Tunisian--who, by the way, has been untouchable here: winning the time trial and then every race en route to that second gold medal.
Wotokovich still has a shot to medal again, with O'Leary, in the finals of the Junior Mixed Double on Sunday. They face the Dutch in their Quarterfinal on Sunday, a crew with Beer Florijn in bow, who is only the younger brother of the World Champion in the flat water single in bow.
Cassady Norton made the most of her second-chance Time Trial to make the top 16: she will race the "knockout repechage" round on Sunday morning for a shot at the Quarterfinals. Norton, Christopher Bak in the Men's Single, and all three junior doubles go into Sunday with a chance to race towards a medal final.
You can watch some of the best finishes of the day here:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/kgXasdQgA38
Other notable results from Saturday:
Interview with Brian O'Leary on Bronze in CJM1x
O'Leary:
On the turn, he (the French sculler) got caught on it a little, and I had a wider, cleaner turn, and I just started hammering it from there. I thought, alright 30 strokes to the beach - and I took 30 strokes and I still had about 15 strokes to go (laughs).
row2k:
It seemed like in both the quarterfinal and then again here where he caught up, there was a moment where it was 'Okay, I gotta go now.'
O'Leary:
Yeah; in my quarterfinal I looked around and saw Egypt fell off his seat or got tangled up, and I just took off with a power 10.
row2k:
We sometimes talk about 'eyes in the boat,' but in dual racing is there a little bit of watching the other guy and seeing when you can go?
O'Leary:
Yeah, there's also smaller strategies; I knew Great Britain had beat me so I walked the last stretch of it to save some energy, so I knew that I would be more well rested than the other person in the B final. So the French kid, Cailhau, was exhausted after his race, it was really close. I was a little more rested and took advantage of that.
row2k:
So it is being a little bit savvy about how you go through the progression. How does it feel to medal on your own here?
O'Leary:
Pretty good; I put in a lot of work over the past year, put on some weight, and developed myself more wholly as a rower, and I'm happy that I'm able to get the medal.
row2k:
And now on to the next race.
O'Leary:
Yeah, I have my last set of races tomorrow in the mixed double with Britt, and hopefully we can snag another medal there.
row2k:
This is the second time you've been through the you've been through the whole progression; what have you learned going through that?
O'Leary:
The big thing for me was that winning the quarterfinal would put me in contention for any sort of medal, and in the semifinals if I could win my semi final that would guarantee a first or second place medal. But if I did lose my semi I would still have the chance at a bronze medal. So I made sure to win the quarterfinal and I gave it my all for the semi, but didn't pull through there.
Interviews with the Bronze Medal USA Mixed Quad
Christopher Bak, Bow Seat
row2k:
Obviously pretty exciting; how did that feel today?
Christopher Bak:
It was awesome. We have been in this crew since June and we had one goal in mind and that was to get to the podium here at Worlds. We had some interesting practices in Ireland and Spain, but we came together when we needed to in the medal round. We kept telling ourselves all week all we want is a shot to win a medal, and that was presented to us and we took the opportunity.
row2k:
You're one of the more senior guys in this new event; how did you bring your experience to this effort?
Christopher Bak:
Not really on purpose, but just tried to be a leader in the boat. I want to give a huge props to the team; they put a lot of trust in me, and props to them for pulling every stroke. They put the strokes in and learned super quick.
It's my second year on the team, and I think each year it gets a little more difficult for qualification. But every year you do it, the more experience you get. And this year's team, throughout my entire rowing career - which started 10 years ago today when I rowed the Speakmon Regatta in Columbus, Ohio - and 10 years later, it's the most cohesive team I've ever been on. Yeah, the friendships made that we had are phenomenal, and we have some more work tomorrow.
Peter Choi, Coxswain
row2k:
First off, you have to tell us about your head first dive technique, getting into the boat.
Peter Choi:
Oh, gosh. I kind of did it accidentally. I remember my first coastal camp, which was Dartmouth, Massachusetts and our coach Marc (Oria) and our other coach Ben (Booth) who couldn't be here but was at Coastals; they just said go as fast as you can get your body in the boat, that's the objective. I took that literally, as in who cares about the seat and just get your physical mass in the boat somehow?
row2k:
You ever hit your head or anything like that?
Peter Choi:
I have; I sliced my leg open and have gotten bruises and scratches all over the place. In the beginning, they said oh, are you hurt? And is that is that painful? I just said it's fine and then we started go with it. And now we know we have a technique.
row2k:
Tell me about the races today with the quarterfinal, semifinal, and then your medal round final back to back.
Peter Choi:
It's so interesting because like the wind it such a huge element, and you are constantly switching lanes.
row2k:
Were conditions different across the three races?
Peter Choi:
Not super different, but I will say that I feel that some lanes are more protected because you got the little hill . But the idea is still the same: you really overshoot what you're used to. But I think that's what makes coastal fun.
row2k:
What was your best turn?
Peter Choi:
My best turn was probably the last one. At that point. I figured out the winds; Okay, I gotta go at this angle, then we can make it around quicker.
row2k:
So maybe there's a little bit of advantage and having these races back to back right instead of six hours or the next day before your next round.
Peter Choi:
Yeah. You're going to run out of steam if you do too much back to back, but at the same time, it's not like the winds going to pick up and die down within 20 minutes. If it's a five minute interval, it's going to be the same conditions.
row2k:
Were there any moments in the races where you knew you had to key in and really dig down?
Peter Choi:
The first one was probably it, because that was the first time I was on the course, in the quarterfinal against Egypt, and I thought I had the winds. I thought I outsmarted it by going a little bit wider. And then we drifted a little bit too close into one of the buoys. And Morgan, her oar got knocked off when we hit the buoy. I really thought we were done for at that point, but you know, it's a testament to my boat mates, how strong they are and resilient and can bounce back. My teammates are incredible. That's why we were able to get through that.
Morgan Hummel, 3 Seat, & Jeni Sorli, 2 Seat
row2k:
Congratulations on the medal; how did it feel to come through what is sort of a gantlet, three races in a row and a lot going on out there.
Hummel:
It's definitely tiring, but worth it.
Sorli:
It's an emotional roller coaster, but we're really excited.
row2k:
A roller coaster even race to race out there this afternoon?
Hummel:
It was a lot of racing, but we had enough time between races to collect ourselves and then go into the next race with a clean and just do what we had to do.
Sorli:
That's also part of the challenge of coastal, I think, relative to a 2k [on flat water], where you go and then you have to recenter yourself and be ready for the next race. Be ready for the next lane; re-set up your boat and race.
Notes from the Beach
Placing Mattered - Even with the pretty straightforward win and advance format, there are six qualifying spots at stake here in the events that will be contested at the Beach Championships next year in Bali--which meant that crews knocked out for the final four in the Quarterfinals were still gunning for on of the two best times not to advance, so they could claim a top six placing.
In the 'Centre' of It All - One rowing fan who has been to her share of venues remarked how lovely it was that a Coastal Championships can take place just steps away from the center of town--for any of us who have been to every race course in the middle of nowhere, it certainly is a nice change.
Para Inclusion - While there are no Para events here this weekend, Brazil's entry in the Men's Single is Paralympian Andre Dutra, who got a great round of applause today as he ran up the beach to finish his Time Trial. He did not advance, finishing last, but was only five seconds off the sculler from Barbados.
All in the Family - As we mentioned, on Dutch junior racing here has a pretty famous rowing name, and some solid genes: Beer Florijn's dad is Ronald, Dutch Olympic gold medalist in the double (1988) and the famous Holland Acht that won in 1996 in Atlanta (after training at Princeton and being part of maybe the greatest bit of rowing ever filmed--trust us, they were good.) The younger generation has already won Olympic Silver in the four and a World Championship in the single (sister Karolien), raced at the Olympics, Worlds, and medaled at U23s (brother Finn), and Beer--already a Dutch flat water junior national teamer--has a pretty good boat handler and coach here in Wales: Ronald Florijn himself.
Earlier this week, the younger Florijn told WorldRowing that his brother and sister don't give him too many tips: "They just tell me that I have to row hard. In our family we don't think about it pretty much, we just race and then we'll see what it brings."
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