Saturday saw the opening heats in the men's and women's straight fours.
In the women's four, the two heats were won by 2019 World Champs Australia and 2021's strongest crew the Netherlands. Since this is the first time back in the Olympic program for the women's four since the '92 Olympics in Barcelona, and since Olympic best times were not kept at that time, today's racing saw the Dutch crew set a "new" Olympic best time in the first heat, which was promptly beaten by the Australian crew in heat two.
The US crew of Grace Luczak, Kendall Chase, Claire Collins and Maddie Wanamaker, racing in the faster of the two heats, never really got underway, finishing in fourth, two spots away from advancement. They will row in the reps tomorrow afternoon.
The US men's four of Andrew Reed, Anders Weiss, Michael Grady, and Clark Dean (who was referred to by a British announcer as Dean Clark, maybe they think he is a prof) made a solid impression today, rowing in second of two qualifying spots all the way down the course, and making a couple game bids for first along the way.
row2k caught up with the US men's four after the racing, and asked about their mindset going into today's racing.
"I think we came well-prepared for the heat, for the wind, for the water," said Dean. "Knowing the opponent - knowing the kind of fingerprint of each other boat, what we had to do to get that top two spot which was obviously the goal and we got it. But we were ready for anything. I think that's one thing we're good at - changing speeds, being internal, being practically on the same page."
"It's just fun," added Michael Grady. "You've got to remember, this is just pure racing at its finest because there's not many people here. It's the true nature of racing, just six crews across going against each other. You've got to remember that that's why we're here. We want to race."
Will it be possible to keep things as simple for the A-Final?
"I think we will," said Dean. "Simple is best for us, and we've done our research beforehand, so we've taken the steps needed to keep it simple."
"We were fully prepared to actually go through the reps, so we got a bit more breathing room than we thought we would," added Andrew Reed. "I think that we will review the tape with our coach, just try and keep the cortisol levels low, relaxed, and just get ready and excited to go one more time."
Dean made the point that the crew knew the difference between moving the boat and just bashing at it.
"I think we do a good job of balancing it because, we're boat full of racers, and no one really has to tell us to go harder at any point," he said. ""A lot of what our coach, Tim McLaren, does is trying to keep us reined in a bit and keep us focused on the rowing because, you know, at a stage like this, we're all competitive enough where we don't have to think about it going out. That comes naturally. What we have to think about is when to go hard, how to go hard, and the finer aspects of the sport."
"Like Reed said, we're going to be meeting with the coach, staying focused, not drifting too far. We're going to be continuing to train, continuing to row, hopefully get a bit better between now and the final, and have one more go."
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