I have a lot more to come today, including full interviews with Michelle Guerette, Elliot Hovey, and Hussein Jebur of the Iraqi double. Here's a quick report, leaving most of the talking to the folks who did the racing. There are some great quotes in here; I hope you enjoy.
Men's Single
In the men's single, Mahe Drysdale almost got caught napping as the Greek sculler went absolutely for broke and almost toppled the world champ in the closing strokes. The Czech Synek, who won the last World Cup (I'm pretty sure, I'm going by memory here given an iffy net connection), has looked really pretty impressive all week, he may get the nod as the week's favorite for now. The Swede is making a name for himself; his joke in our report yesterday that he would like to get another win over Drysdale doesn't seem like such a jest after today.
Marcel HACKER (GER)
"From my point of view, I think it's ok. I did my best. It would be fantastic if I could have made it to the A final, but now what I should do is look forward and give my best in the B final."
Alan CAMPBELL (GBR)
"I've been stepping up each race, and I've stepped it up again today. No messing around. The Greek guy just kept coming and coming. I had to sprint like an electric eel and shoot like a bolt, passing world champion in the angle. I'm feeling 110$, I'm buzzing. I'm going to go home to eat and sleep well tonight, and I'll be back ready for the final."
"I'm ecstatic - over the moon - to be in the Final. The important thing now is recovery. If I hadn't got through now I would have been honest and not blamed it on my knee injury. The race was brilliant, it got Mahe cut up from both sides! Christou (Ioannis) - what a guy! He only jumped into the single this year, but unfortunately he's on the other side of things today. I came here with the intention of producing an Olympic performance. We've all got a chance in this Final - I think I've got an underdog's chance. That's a good place to be."
Olaf TUFTE (NOR)
"I am very happy to make the final, it was a hard race. The Swede went really hard and the other guys were close. Maybe I was trying a bit too hard, but I was right to do that. I just tried to keep my focus on my boat and keep holding on."
Lassi KARONEN (SWE)
"It's my first Olympic Games and it feels great to win my semifinal. I'm much more relaxed about the Final. During the race I found more power, especially in the middle section, and I hope to get some extra power for the Final to enable me to reach my peak. After the Games are over I'll take every day as it comes, take time off, and relax with my family."
Mathias RAYMOND (MON)
"I am the first Monaco rower ever to participate in an Olympic Games. It's a great experience and I'm very lucky to be here. It was my goal to make the Final C, but I'm still young and inexperienced and have some work to do. Last year I was 6th in the World Rowing Under 23 Championships but this year only 8th because the wind conditions didn't suit me. I don't get much recognition as an athlete at home, but Prince Albert follows my progress and helps me out. He gave me the great honour to carry our flag at the Opening Ceremony. I train in Lyons in France, and at the French Training Centre. Monaco has five athletes here and there is a good atmosphere in the Olympic Village."
Sjoerd HAMBURGER (NED)
"Yesterday I wasn't fast enough but felt I was better than a C/D finalist. I needed to prove that today with a good final sprint. I've nothing else left now but the Final C. There's great dualism here; in one way it's like a regular World Championships - rowing, rowers, 2000m, lots of FISA officials; in the other way this is bigger, larger than life. I get a lot of attention from my country's press. This is still rowing but a big step up to be in the Olympic Games."
Women's Single
The Chinese sculler really put on a show today, and the final in this event is going to be intense and fantastic; today's heartbreak was for Emma Twigg of New Zealand, who missed qualifying by 0.05 seconds.
Norbert Ladermann (Karsten's coach)
"I think today's performance was ok. I think the race wasn't planned."
On the results of the other semi: "After the results of the first semifinal I was a little surprised. I thought Knapkova would win. But I thought the Chinese gile was very good. I think she, Guerette and Knapkova are still the most important opponents in this race. I think it will be a very close race in the final."
Zhang Xiuyun (CHN)
"I have competed with Michelle Guerette several times, so I learned from this experience. So it was my strategy to go just behind her. At the last 750m, I heard the cheering of the spectators, and they said I should give more strength. But at that time, I knew I shouldn't give more strength. At the last 500m, I gave more strength and I won."
On making the final: "I didn't think too much about this; my goal of this Olympics was to make the top six. I have a serious heart problem, so to finish this Olympics successfully is my goal."
"Everyone wants to be first in the semifinal but the standard is very high. If I perform exceptionally in the Final I'll have a chance. My technique is to stay in touch for the first 1500m then sprint - this is down to experience. When I got to 1500m I heard the first shouts of 'Chinese Team add oil' and was excited - then at the main grandstand I heard the crowd roar and reckoned I should go for it. The crowd makes a big difference."
Michelle GUERETTE (USA)
"It's great to be in the Final; it really only hit me on the pontoon, 'I'm in the Final!' I got a bit distracted at 1500m, became rattled and had to sprint. I think it's because I saw where I was, heard the crowd roar, and got caught off guard. Then I heaved it a bit - it wasn't smooth. You can't just hear the crowd, you can feel it - it's like thunder, it's thrilling."
Mirka KNAPKOVA (CZE)
"That race didn't feel good - the Final will be better. I don't know what to say about getting to the Final, I'm very happy. I don't want to think about my preparation now, I'm very tired and think I'm going to sleep."
Men's Pair
The return to form of the Australian pair may be the headline, but the best race of the day might have come from the serious dark horse US pair, who placed just behind the Aussies. Remember they did not even win the trials in the US, and here they are in the A final at the Olympics. They are having a great week of racing using mainly bread and butter approach; it's been great to watch.
In the other semi, the South African pair was so spent at the finish line that they collapsed in the boat, veered into the NZ crew, and almost flipped.
"We were just trying to do the same thing, trying to row fast and clean, and just keep bumping it up a little bit intensity wise," Tyler said about the final 500 meters.
"Because we are pretty new, we were happy to just get our nose in it and be there with the other guys down the course," Cameron said. "When we started hitting the stands, the noise picked up, and we started saying, 'hey, let's give it a little bit more.' Before we knew it, with 250 meters left, we went for it because we could smell the finish line and it was good enough to get us qualified."
Dave CALDER (CAN)
"It was good to see South Africa make it to the Final A. There were points all along the course where we had to improve and prove to ourselves that we belong here after our bad heat. In the boathouse we have a notebook in which we have every detail we should focus on from before we push off the dock until the final gate. Immediately after the accident I called my wife to say we were OK."
"In the first thousand it was our boat, our race. We weren't happy with last race and we wanted to prove to ourselves we deserve to be here, you can see it in our faces."
Scott FRANDSEN (CAN)
"When we saw the draw I thought this would be a tough semifinal. But the second semifinal didn't end as predicted so the moral is 'Just race'."
"It was a much better race. We didn't get distracted from all the things we did before. We spent the last three days relaxing and preparing ourselves for failure. We have no fear."
Tom LEHMANN (GER)
"I still can't realise we've qualified for the Final - no one expected us to. We tried, tried, had a long sprint at the end, and it worked. This semifinal has shown we can do it when we want to and that we grow with the races. But the Final will be completely different. After all this is over I plan to go to Spain on holiday with friends."
"We are happy with this result so far, it is a breakthrough. Our goal was top 20, so that's why we can compete without pressure. I don't think we have a medal chance."
Men's Double
The shocker here has to be the NZ double's third place finish; they were looking none too composed after their race.
Nathan COHEN (NZL)
"It was a very good start. You've got to be on your game to make it to the final. We weren't as fast on the last 700 meters as we traditionally have been. We usually finish very fast. I will go back, have a stretch and a massage and get back out onto the water tomorrow morning."
Rob WADDELL (NZL)
"We were aware that the semi would be tough, people just don't throw in the towel at these regattas, they try right to the end. I don't think it was our best race, it's just a case of taking a deep breath and figuring out our game plan for Saturday. We're just pleased to be in the final, it's better to be there in the outside lane than not to be there."
On the Games: "I don't think I ever really enjoy these weeks to be honest. It's hard on your nerves but it feels great when it's over."
Jean- Baptiste MACQUET (FRA)
"We come to win and we will leave as winners."
Matthew WELLS (GBR)
"This was not our best performance - we need to be at 100% and this was probably only 3% to 4% off that but we'll need everything for the Final. On a positive note, we've not yet had our best race in training or racing. So that will come at the Final. In Rowing we all bounce off each other and support each other. For our Final, well, anyone could win."
Jueri JAANSON (EST)
"That was a good race - difficult, but easier than our heat where I blew up in the last quarter. I can't compare this to other world events, I only think about our races now."
Hussein JEBUR (IRQ)
"It's great to be here and race against big champions. We rowed well and achieved a good time and result. We hold the Iraqi record in M2x - we hope we have beaten it today [they did]. At home we train on the river where we can row over 1800m but the water is not always good and it is not always very safe in Baghdad. I spent two years in Sweden and learned English there. Before today's race we and the USA crew wished each other 'Good Luck'. Tomorrow I'm going shopping to buy souvenirs for friends and maybe go to the Great Wall."
Men's Four
The semi draw was a bit lopsided; all six crews in the first semi would have placed in front of the second place crew in the second semi, and both the defending champ NZ crew and the World Cup medalist US crew ended up on the wrong side of the dviding line on the results sheet. The times for places 2-6:
-5:56.2
-5:56.73
-5:57.31
-5:57.52
-5:58.14
Owwww...
Cameron McKENZIE McHARG (AUS)
"We kinda came through at 1500m, which is different to our usual. We normally like to stamp our authority on the race from the beginning. We held our rhythm and got back into the field, but had to work for it."
James MARBURG (AUS)
"We've got an underdog feeling about coming into this event; in April we didn't even know if we would be here. Now we feel it's an opportunity for us to win, not lose. We don't want to dwell on not making the eight, but we'll go out and do our best. There's real solidarity in the crew. No one person will let us down."
Pete REED (GBR)
"We had a good start but can't take anything for granted at this stage in the Olympics. There have been big surprises in all events. It's going to be a huge Final; I'm pleased to be in a boat with three very strong athletes. I've got confidence in all of us. This is my first Olympics and it's a real joy - I'm thriving on the experience. We've enjoyed the privilege of being the men's GBR flagship boat for the past 4 years, but Juergen (Grobler) said to the team before we came out here that there is no longer a 'top' boat. We are not battling the rest of the team. In the Final we will race our absolute hearts out."
Steve WILLIAMS (GBR)
"As expected, we shot off the start, which we had to do because France has a dangerous crew. It was only in the third 500m that we started to ease ahead and that was a good encouragement for us. We've come a long way from the heats and will have to step it up again. In every race there is something unexpected - this is a good lesson for us."
Milan BRUNCVIK Jr (CZE)
"We consider qualifying for the Final as a small miracle. It was a combination of luck, desire to qualify, and will to win. We were last in our heat but we improved in the Repechage where we won, two seconds ahead of the rest. We now try not to go off the start too fast, so that we are able to sprint at the finish. It looks like that's the right strategy for us. In the last 500m I couldn't see or hear anything, not even the noise from the tribunes. In the Olympic Games everyone is well-prepared, we all want to be in the Final and race for medals."
Women's Eight
Canada had a really nice race today, nabbing the lead a little way into the proceedings and never letting go.
A member of the GB crew:
"We were really concentrating on the process today. We wanted to dominate the race but didn't unfortunately. We've got to go out there Sunday and give the performance of our lifetime and I really believe that this crew can do it."
Nienke KIGMA (NED)
"No race is perfect, we made some mistakes but I am really satisfied. We rowed as fast as possible, we are very happy. We are very afraid of USA and Romania."
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