Conditions: this morning was warm but hazy to start, then eventually overcast, so the day didn't offer the nearly oppressive that yesterday did. Again this morning the current and wind were headed the same direction - light tail current, light tailwind.
Yesterday afternoon, the wind came around to a stiff headwind, and as the wind faced off against the current, a formidable chop gave way to waves on the water. The wind came up so aggressively that the Canadian men's coxed four completely swamped during their afternoon practice.
At the start of the day today, the forecast predicted that the same wind would arrive by the end of racing, and organizers were very concerned about swamping conditions. While the tailwind did drop out considerably at around 10:45, the headwind never materialized, and conditions on the water were pretty good all day.
There were a couple of world best times set this morning, with the aid of the generous tailwind early in the day:
The Italian LM2- actually broke the record first, rowing in the heat before the Danes. So, technically they held the world record for six minutes.
FISA/official types tend to cringe a bit when the subject of world best times come up; while they make good television, given differences in courses/wind/current, etc., it's hard to assign any tangible value to them. That said, the CAN LW4x smashed the old record by a good 8 seconds; wind or no, they're fast.
The biggest news on the US side must be Caryn Davies' replacement in this morning's women's 4x heat by team spare Nicole Sylvester. Caryn apparently woke up this morning with some stomach problems, and had to withdraw from the racing. FISA rules dictate that when a rower is replaced due to illness, they may return at any time during the regatta. No specific diagnosis was available at press time, but Caryn did practice with the crew on Tuesday afternoon.
The crew did not qualify for the semi today, and will race in tomorrow's rep.
It was a morning for lightweights today; the first 17 of today's 26 races were lightweight events.
Out on the starting pontoon, there were some very long waits inside the two-minute mark; seasoned crews mostly sat easy until the crews were polled, while some of the more green crews sat in starting position with blades buried for quite a long time. It did seem like there were some burps in the six-minute center schedule today; in two of the three big-boat events where "yellow cards" were issued (see yesterday's report for more on the yellow cards), they were issued to three or four crews in the event. That seemed more like a traffic management and schedule problem than a crew problem; for example, in one event, the crews were called toward the line at an official five-minute mark, but the official four-minute mark was announced about 15 seconds later, leaving the crews less than two minutes to row from directly behind the starting pontoon all the way into their lanes. fortunately noone was dq'd.
In the light men's double, the Japanese men won the World Cup this year, and placed sixth at the Olympics last year, but today it looked a bit like that episode was as much a wakeup call for the European crews as it was a harbinger of Japanese dominance in the event. The German crew alongside the Japanese crew went "wie die Feuerwehr" out of the gates, and won the heat by two seconds flat over the Japanese crew. This event is always hot; should be great racing all week.
The US light men's four was working to notify the starting officials that they had breakage with their steering mechanism, but as they limped to the line rowing bow pair, they were able to repair the steering well enough to "think we can race," as they told officials. Going off the line the crew seemed to have no trouble going more or less straight, and they nipped the Dutch crew at the finish, so it seems like they figured it out.
The bottle-tossing shenanigans continued today, with several crews making a pretty good show of lightening the ballast right before the race. USW4x stroke Anna Mickelson tossed about a half-dozen bottles off the stern, complete with a classic Anna smile; shutters were going off like crazy and all the photographers were tittering. "Hey, c'mon Ed, I was a basketball player," she protested.
PA commentary of the day: "The crews are passing the stands, and the fans are all waving their fans."
It was all quiet out on the water this morning until the eights showed up, especially the men's eights; with eight guys hauling on it, their coxswains shouting out warmup tens, and race plans going off, the whole river seemed suddenly to bellow. There was more of the same at the starting line, when several crews did their psych-up shouting routines; it did seem to work for the Germans, at least.
Major mayhem hits the AUS W8+ again; in the last 10 strokes of the heat, with the crew in a neck-and-neck battle with the Dutch for one qualifying spot, three seat Sonia Mills popped the topnut off her rigger, and her oarlock came completely off the pin. The crew bobbled for two strokes, she tried to put her rigger back together, then pitched her oar over the side javelin-style and hung onto the gunnels for the last few strokes of the race.
The men's quad, into which the Slovenian 2x of Cop and Spik are doubling in the stern pair, looks rough enough; the three winning heat times were within 0.15 of one another.
That seems like an eternity when compared to the light women's double, where the winning times spanned only 0.04.
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