The top Singles races--Champ Men's and Women's, and the Lightweight Men's and Women's--all went to first time winners at the 2022 Head of the Charles.
Emily Kallfelz came the furthest to grab her win: the stroke of this year's US quad started back in 20th position in the Champ Women's Single. Molly Reckford, Olympian and World silver medalist in the Light Double, won the Light Women's Single from third position, and Ezra Carlson took the Champ Men's Single from third as well. Carlson chased his National--and collegiate--teammate Chris Carlson (no relation) to get the win.
In the Light Men's Single, GB's Jamie Copus may have had the easiest time of it: he started first and led at every marker on his way to the win.
Champ W1x - Emily Kallfelz
Kallfelz, who trains in Boston, was spotted practicing her turns, even as a local, and row2k asked whether she thought she could win going into today.
"I thought maybe; my speed has been decent," said Kallfelz. "But of course, starting 20th, you also think, well, anything could happen. So I decided, I'm just going to try to have the best race I can, steer the cleanest course. Hopefully, if I need to pass people, they'll get out of the way.
"I thought it was a possibility, but starting so far back there, a lot of factors could mess that up."
Keys to coming through the field like she did?
"Mostly stroke rate," she said, "and then I have an Empower oarlock on my boat, which is very helpful. I have a number that I try to hit for a lot of the strokes. And then my course. Those are the three things--number, stroke rate, course--again and again. Just trying to keep it simple.
"There's definitely a home course advantage for sure. I do think that, the more you row it, the better chance you have. But at the same time, they put the buoy line in one day before racing, so at some point, everyone has to figure it out as you go."
Champ M1x - Ezra Carlson
Carlson chased the first two starters--Bow #1 Finn Putnam and Bow #2 Chris Carlson--hard enough that that he was able to take the last turn wide as those two tangled with each other, and still had enough time in hand to take his first Champ 1x title.
"It was a great day for a great race," he said afterward. "It was beautiful out there. Definitely the best conditions that I've raced in here at the Charles.
"Starting third, I was happy with that; there's not too much traffic. I knew that I was going to be chasing Chris Carlson, who is a good teammate and fellow Husky alum. I knew if I could chase him down, I'd be in a pretty good place.
"I just tried to find a rhythm through the first turn and the Powerhouse Stretch, watching the split, and was able to creep up on Chris around the big turn coming to CBC. Then he and Finn Putnam were tussling a little bit coming towards the last bridge and I just tried to stay wide--to stay out of that and get a good line through the finish.
"I was just able to find a good rhythm and it felt good; I felt prepared."
Light W1x - Molly Reckford
Reckford made quick work of the Light Women's field, winning by 21 seconds with a time that would have put her 7th in the open division. It was her first win in any event at the Charles.
"I love racing the single and I love being in Boston," said Reckford. "I love this course; it's so challenging and so much fun.
"I've never steered the Head of the Charles before and so going out for practice yesterday and seeing where they put the buoys, I thought, 'Oh my goodness, I always take the Riverside turn tighter than this. Okay, here we go: I have to reevaluate how I come out from under these bridges.' Jesse Foglia from Harvard will tell you I'm terrible at steering. So, there's something the extra challenge of being alone, steering this course that really makes it a special race and a lot of fun.
"This race was really special to me: I've wanted to race the lightweight single at the Head of the Charles since I was in college. I had a really wonderful coach named Boris at Nereid Boat Club; he saw something in me and said, 'I think you can be a good lightweight sculler.' I said, 'Too bad, I'm a heavyweight sweeper,' but in the back of my head, I thought maybe one day I could train really, really hard and become a lightweight and race the Head of the Charles and maybe I can win.
"That was summer of 2012, and here in 2022, I finally got to live out that dream. So that's really special."
Light M1x - Jamie Copus
Copus, a sculler in the Team GB system, raced the Charles three times before getting his win--what he called "the big medal"--today. Fifth as a schoolboy with Abingdon in 2010, then second in an Oxford Brookes Light Four that came up one scrap with Delaware and .7 seconds short in 2017, and then second again in the Light Single last year, Copus loves racing the Charles:
"It's the Henley of head races," he said. "It is the best head race in the world and I absolutely love it--especially with all the steering. It's a lot of analysis required to get down the track."
He credited his training and a bit of local help with his breakthrough to the headship today.
"I hit the [training] block pretty hard back at Brookes for the last month and had a pretty good taper, which is nice. I like training so I do find it really hard to not do stuff beforehand.
"I steered a lot better than last year, and studied the course. I've been rowing out of Union Boat Club, and John Lindberg, the coach there, has been super helpful and helped me out with steering - just making sure I'm running the right point and knowing where to line up.
"That certainly paid dividends today, apart from around Riverside, where I completely screwed up the bend; I hugged the buoys very nicely and then took it way too far. I saw Alex Twist go right, and I looked around and I was going into the bank. Made a quick adjust and then got back on straight. After that I absolutely nailed it, so that certainly helped.
"Then, I've been bring up my intensity a little bit in training recently. The last couple of years, especially having been with the GB squad, there's a lot of steady state; UT2 and low level aerobic. But I found what gets a bit more out of me is more Brookes's program: high intensity, high power per stroke. So I've been kind of taking that into the single, and it seems to have paid off. I think that's probably been the main thing: a little bit of that, a little bit better steering, and it seemed to all come together quite nicely today."
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10/23/2022 11:49:36 AM
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