After a close loss to the German M8+ in Saturday's opening heat, the US faced a tough repechage, with four crews to advance to Friday's A-Final. After securing qualification through a third-place finish, Justin Best and coxswain Julian Venosky spoke with row2k.
row2k: Tell us about your race.
Justin Best: Bouncy.
Julian Venonsky: Very bouncy.
Best: I said this last time, you put blinders to it, and you try and manage it. I think we were pretty sure about at least our first 500. There was this opening down there. I don't know if you can see it on the TV, but there's this direct crosswind, so at least from two seat, Ben Davidson and I were talking about we should try to keep a level platform, setting it up so the big guys could do their work. You know, it might have been a rough first 500, but the goal was to qualify, and we kept our heads in the boat, and that's what we ended up doing even with that bouncy first 500.
Interviewer: How much in your preparation revolves around talking about conditions versus about race plan tactics and the actual rowing stuff?
Venonsky: In terms of conditions, I think just where we train in Oakland on the estuary or out of Briones reservoir. It's tidal. It's windy. It's bouncy. There are white caps. I mean, it's really nothing we're not used to, so it's just kind of engrained into our training plan - whether it's a headwind, a tailwind, a crosswind. We just are trying to get used to every single possible condition.
Best: As far as race plan goes, Julian executed it perfectly. He kept all of us together. In my opinion, I thought it was a little bit more of a together piece than our heat. It seemed like we were more focused. It was more level. It was more dedicated together. You know, our moves were poignant. In our last 500, that's what we were working on. I think we closed with the fastest 500, so that's encouraging to see, and hopefully there's going to be some better conditions in the final.
Interviewer: How much do you think lanes are going to be a factor in the final? It's going to be one hell of a race.
Venonsky: We don't really focus on that. I mean, we just focus on the piece and what we can do and what we can control. They put the bow ball, our bow number on our bow, and that's where we are, so can't really change that. Again, like Justin said, just trying to stay internal, row our race, and really, we're just super excited just to be in an Olympic final and to be fighting for medals. I mean, it's been five years for me - a little short of Justin - but it's just an incredible feeling and we're all incredibly excited and just want to race again.
Interviewer: Coming down the course, were you confident with where you were? Or looking around, did you think at any point, this wasn't going to happen? Or were you just like, "We're going to get this"?
Best: To be honest, I didn't really look out of the boat. I had no general clue other than what he was telling me. I knew coming through 1,500 because I could see it all from the side - just out of my sight. We at least were up over another crew which is an automatic qualifier. At that point, I was just like, "All right. Let's hit our moves and stay focused. Take a deep breath. Keep in the moment and then don't mess up," because there's been a lot of different crews out here today. I think a lightweight double flipped. It's pretty heartbreaking. Just trying to keep focused, keep a level head, and then hold it through the finish.
Interviewer: Were you watching the guys and thinking, "I've got to keep them in this"?
Venonsky: Yeah. I mean, always coming into it, you know it's top four, so that's kind of the bare minimum of the goal. Always the goal is to win the piece, so I think, again, just trying to stay calm, especially in these conditions, just staying together and calm and kind of riding through all these wakes and waves. I knew where we are. I knew we were kind of moving on to the A-final, but obviously kind of reeling in the British at the end a little bit with the Kiwis, so I think we just tried to put together a good piece.
We got the job done. We did what we needed to do, and we're going to be fighting for medals on Friday.
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