Seven new members of the US Olympic team earned their colors today - two of them a repeat Olympians - as all four of yesterday's Final One winners repeated today to win the trials. With no rubber matches required, all four boats are now named to the 2008 US Olympic Rowing squad. Here's a brief recap of the racing this morning; I'll update this feature as we get a chance to speak to the winners over the next couple days.
The first race of the day in the men's double was arguably the most closely contested, and the winning double of Elliot Hovey and Wes Piermarini were pushed right to the line, and showed it in the last few strokes of the race as they battled fatigue to hold it together and get the biggest job of their rowing careers thus far over and done with. As it turns out, it's also the first big job of their elite rowing careers; not only is it first Olympic team for both crew members, but this is the first US senior team for either, end stop. After crossing the finish line and catching their breaths, they toasted their "first drink as Olympians" with the water bottles tossed from the officials launch. They'll return to California to continue training with coach Tim McLaren, and then I believe will race at Henley to gain more racing experience leading up to the Games.
In the women's pair, Anna Cummins and Portia McGee repeated with another one length win in the women's pair over rivals and teammates Lind and Logan; the winning crew was clearly gassed after they crossed the line, and the first thing that came to mind is that all of the participants will be the better for having faced off so many times and so tenaciously. Lind and Logan will clearly be solid candidates for the eight, and two World Cup medals and a couple grueling trials will only make everyone more formidable in Beijing. Of the four, only Cummins has an Olympic ring to date; McGee has made several US teams, but never the Olympic squad. The conventional wisdom has to be that Cummins will double into the eight, while rowing the pair with McGee, who will not double, much as the duo did last summer after McGee subbed into the pair when Megan Cooke was injured. With the heat, reported pollution, and high level of competition expected in Beijing, doubling will be a real challenge; to have the team's vet oar in the role makes a lot of sense.
In the men's pair, Josh Inman and Matthew Schnobrich couldn't quite open up clear water on the field, but didn't really seem powerfully pressed either. For a time after the racing this morning, the crew was pondering options were they not to declare for the pair, but within a couple hours had accepted the spot as the Olympic men's pair. Although both have been on multiple US teams, this is the first Olympic squad for both; Inman was on the 2004 non-Olympic Senior team in the coxed four, and in the eight the past three years; Schnobrich has been on the squad every year since 2005 in the pair and straight four.
And in the women's single, it was almost a row-over for Michelle Guerette (also a repeat Olympian from the 2004 women's quad); as coach Ted Nash asked of the photographer watching through a zoom lens from the finish line, "she's up and gone?" and that was very much the case this morning. Guerette settled under 30 strokes per minute in the last 150 meters, and very nearly paddled over the line. After the race, she showed she might be an okay as a third base hot corner player if her snag of a water bottle tossed wide and fast is any indication.
Complete results from this morning:
#18 Mens 2x Final 2 (07:30:00) Official
Place Entry Lane Time
1 California Rowing CLub (Elliot Hovey, Wes Piermarini) 3 06:27.348
2 Bantam Boat Club (Thomas Graves, Peter Graves) 4 06:29.855
3 CTC/ CRC (Warren Anderson, Jon Greer) 2 06:30.876
#19 Womens 2- Final 2 (07:40:00) Official
Place Entry Lane Time
1 USRowing Training Center (Anna Cummins, Portia Mcgee) 3 07:12.458
2 USRowing Training Center (Caroline Lind, Elle Logan) 4 07:16.296
3 Vesper Boat Club (Ann Holmes, Shannon Kaplan) 2 07:56.607
#20 Mens 2- Final 2 (07:50:00) Official
Place Entry Lane Time
1 USRowing Training Center (Josh Inman, Matthew Schnobrich) 3 06:38.104
2 USRowing Training Center (Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss) 4 06:40.989
3 USRowing Training Center (Ben Harrison, Alex Hearne) 2 06:44.165
4 USRowing Training Center (Brodie Buckland, Sebastian Bea) 5 06:45.507
#21 Womens 1x Final 2 (08:00:00) Official
Place Entry Lane Time
1 Unaffiliated (Michelle Guerette) 3 07:39.837
2 Undine Barge Club (Meghan Sarbanis) 4 07:50.286
3 Vesper Boat Club (Julia Nichols) 2 07:57.028
Comments | Log in to comment |
There are no Comments yet
|
row2k's Olympics coverage is brought to you by:
row2k's Olympics coverage is brought to you by: