Welcome to Henley this beautiful Friday morning! First to tie up a few loose ends from yesterday, in no particular order:
In the Northeastern Alumni Vistor's Challenge boat, the one non-Northeastern rower Elliot Hovey (US Olympian in Quad, Cal Bear) has a history at NEU that can most accurately be described by saying he was "grandfathered" into the boat...literally. Hovey's grandfather started the rowing program at Northeastern. Another Hovey note is he is helping Steve McKiernan coach the only US PE entry, Boston College High School. So after racing the four in the morning, Hovey was in a blazer and khakis to sit nervously in a launch as his crew won a tight race against King's College School.
Columbia Lightweights fell to ASR Nereus from the Netherlands yesterday afternoon. They were outweighed by close to 30 pounds per athlete, and they rowed into the building wind later in the day. Frederick Aasaaren, Columbia 6 seat felt "It was a good way to end a really good season" (referring to the trip to Henley, not the loss to the Dutch crew); John O'Mara noted that "It was a hard race, into the headwind..." The Nereus crew, they felt had length and power ("after shaking their hand," says one Columbia athlete, "I felt better about the result," noting their size). Columbia is a young crew, and will continue to have the option to go to Henley after Sprints and IRA podium finishes, so could well be back for more in the future.
Diamonds Sculls contender John Graves dispatched Leander lightweight Chris Boddy yesterday, and faced German Andreas Penkner today. Graves is training at Craftsbury Sculling Center and is involved in the Green Racing Project started by Dick Dreissigacker and Judy Geer, a rowing and Nordic ski development program that features the good clean green mountain air, a little bit of work for the center, and a lot of training to get ahead in elite racing. He is currently coached by Dan Roock, who has a long history of coaching at Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth, and for the U23's. “I am trying to get as fast as possible right now, and the single just happened," says Graves, "but I think my heart is in the double," so you may see him racing that boat class also. The original plan was for John to row a double with US Olympian brother Peter, who was in the quad at London 2012, but his brother took some time off from the sport. "Maybe next year."
row2k also spoke to former US lightweight rower Ursula Grobler, who was born in South Africa but became a US Citizen in 2010. She learned to row in the US, where she rowed as a top lightweight rower for just over two years, then returned to South Africa to train in their system and be closer to family. "Training is going awesome," says Grobler. She says it has been like a family reunion, attending "braai's" (South African term for BBQs) and spending time with her father Dave Grobler. She is currently caoched by AJ Grant.
Lots to come from today's racing, stay tuned.