I can't type a sentence without addressing the US men's 2- dramatic flip with 250 meters to go in their rep; at that point in the race, your heart rate is up around 200, respiratory rate off the scale, and the likelihood that you can get a good breath before a flip pretty small, so it's very good to hear both rowers are okay. Apparently Adam Holland was simply spent by that late point in the race, and the crew started to steer to starboard dramatically before finally flipping. As rescue workers rushed and bumbled to pull the crew out of the water - Adam's not a small guy - Dan Walsh held him above the waves. After getting sick back at the boat area, Adam appears to be more or less ok.
Normally in this case, any crew that does not complete a qualifying race is disqualified from the regatta, but there are appeals processes in place for this kind of occurence. At present, I have conflicting reports as to whether or not this process has been initiated; I'll keep digging.
On a lighter (?) note, there was a near-brawl in the press tent today, apparently over computer real estate, the gist of it as follows:
- A: You are stupid!
- B: You are two times stupid!
Eloquent lot, the rowing press.
On the US side of things, when things went well, they went really pretty well; when things went poorly, ouch. On the down side, there's the 2- flip, of course; then in the women's 1x, Kristen Goodrich went to the 500 in second place, but had a troubled middle 1000 and had fallen into last by 500 to go. Remember that Goodrich did not win the US trials, but assumed the single slot after trials winner Danika Harris moved into the quad, and might be in somewhat deep water here. She advances to the 3-boat C final; good luck to her there. The women's double, which placed fourth in Lucerne, unexpectedly finds themselves in the C final after placing fourth in their rep; the same story applies to the men's double, although it really looks like the luck of the draw went against them; on the clock their time would have placed 2nd in either of the other two reps, and they same out on the raw end of a blistering photo finish: 2) GBR 6:19.04; 3) AUT 6:19.24; 4) USA 6:19.52.
On the positive side, rep wins came in the women's four and pair, the men's coxed pair, and for Lisa Schlenker in the LW1x. The men's four, racing in the penultimate race of the day when conditions were getting really bad, went off the line really pretty well (I was on the starting dock), then apparently let a couple crews slip by in the second 500, and couldn't push back in the slop later in the race. They qualified for the semis, tho, and while they'll likely have an outside lane, here's hoping they're better with each race.
Shaq Abdullah finds himself in the A final hunt, placing third in the 3-to-the-semi rep. I was told that Shaq pulled himself into a solid third place almost immediately, put a chunk of water between himself and fourth place, and just brought it in.
Speaking of going in the drink, the FISA dock master saw the starting dock from water level today as well. Luckily for him it was toward the end of racing, and he had to spend only a couple races drip-drying.
And one note about the weather: it's incredibly windy. The Brit rowing hacks (that's "journalists" to you) staged a short comedy routine by mimicking leaning and struggling into the wind. With the help of their receding hairlines showing in the wind, it was tremendously realistic.
One of the draws of a Seville Worlds was the normally hot and windless conditions; this is the crux of the reason the Worlds are so late this year, as it's apparently almost unbearable in August. I haven't seen a wind like this since Copenhagen in 1987, and even that wind might not have been this strong. It's come up a lot since this morning, so it wasn't quite this bad during racing, but I'm pretty sure the course is closed to practice today.
Adaptive rowing note: today's heats were canceled due to the conditions. Racing will instead be final-only tomorrow, with two races of seven boats each, I believe. row2k will have photos.
Tuesday by the numbers:
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