The draw:
-Monday heats
After having been installed, taken down, and installed again, the racecourse looks great at present. When the worst of the storm threatened, the LOC used trucks, cranes, and a heap of manpower to store every boat in the regatta, eventually putting over 200 boats safely into four boat bays that admittedly have pretty high celings, but otherwise are of fairly normal size. Yesterday one coach in attendance was almost awestruck at how efficient the LOC has been in dealing with the problems: "It was amazing to watch; they had the whole thing taken down, and all the boats moved inside, within two hours. There were so many people working so hard, I couldn't believe it." Another coach noted that it would be a shame if this Worlds already suffered from a tainted reputation: "The perception of this Worlds may already be poor, but the organizers have been working 24 hours every day to deal with the problems, and have done an incredible job."
Conditions: according to the LOC leader, the flow is decreasing steadily, and he expects that by the finals flow could be minimal or nearly non-existent. there doesn't seem to be any flow at present; winds were cross from port yesterday, cross from starboard today. On the whole, it looks like a World Championships course. After a couple days of accommodating the whole of world rowing, the ergs are all but empty now.
But wow was it hot here early on, with temps of 35C predicted; a cloud cover saved the day by mid-late afternoon.
That said, there is another typhoon in the Pacific south of here; it does appear that it will track hard to the west, and may never reach Japan at all.
The French heavy men's eight has a very unusual double bucket, in the 6-7 seats on port and the 4-5 seats on starboard. That's a lot of rocking back and forth when rowing sixes - ugh.
The folks who are doubling up should be keeping in shape through the taper; I saw one batch do two sessions of two trips in each boat yesterday afternoon. That's a cool 16k in hot temps.
FISA was doing mock race announcements today to test the PA and timing systems; the "race" went something like this; first up, the contestants:
Some of the commentary:
"We are watching a cardinally good performance from Vatican City in lane 1. The Vatican City took second place in the Italian championships, well clear of San Marino, and just a hair behind the Azurra club. Subsequently, Sister Anunciata would not release Benedict the 16th to participate in selection, so he is not on the team this year."
This blasphemy courtesy of C of E, of course.
Given the time difference, row2k's updates will most likely not adhere to our usual more or less 9am daily publishing time; I will work on getting into a rhythm with the updates, but on the whole will post things as we go along.
Finally, one of the first things Westerners from many countries noticed is the exceptionally versatile toilet seats, with controls for seat temperature, a bidet, and a "shower." I was told I had to try the shower, and will report only that it's aim is true. Good morning!
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