Never count out Adam Holland. Throughout the third 500, the men’s 2x of Adam and Ken Jurkowski shadowed Steve Gillespie and Eric Mueller by about a length, sometimes a hair more, sometimes a little less. At 500 to go, Adam and Ken were at least two beats higher than Steve and Eric, pushing 38 spm, and were going up again. Even with 300 to go, the margin remained around a length. The crowd at the 500 pier figured surely they had nowhere to go - but by the finish line, Adam had unleashed the same sprint we saw twice, and almost three times, at the singles trials, and had bolted ahead to pip Steve and Eric at the line by 0.29 seconds in the fastest heat time of the day. Amazing.
(Note that the times may not be entirely reliable as comparisons; the tailwind did increase a little through the morning.)
At 500 to go, the first heat of the men’s double looked a lot like the last one, as Nuzum and Aquil were just a few seats ahead of the lightweights Aller and Stephenson, who were rowing much higher and attacking early, but the heavy double was able to pull away in the final 500 on superior firepower.
The third heat had a final margin of 0.66; folks were commenting that the final is going to be intense; heck, the semis are going to be intense.
In the women’s pair, the second heat, a two-boater, was the screamer of the day, with closed water separating the two crews all the way down the course in the one-to-the-final heat; the MacKenzie/Jones pair’s winning margin was pretty much the margin the whole way. In the other heat, the Malcos/Johnson pair had the race very much under control just after the halfway point, and advanced almost, if not quite, easily. Reps are tonight.
In the men’s pair, with all three heats sending two crews to the semis, and margins from second to third open water in all cases, it is likely that no one showed all their cards today. In both the second and third heats, the leader at 500 to go shut down and let the second place crew row through; this one will play out in the semis.
The reps for the men's pair and men's double were run this evening; see the full heats and reps results here. Good luck to all the crews through the rest of the trials.
One special note of congratulations: head women's coach Tom Terhaar was not able to attend the racing this morning, as he added the title "Father" to his resume; he and Jen had a baby boy this morning.
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