As the second round of the best-of-three trials format proceeded apace this morning at Mercer Lake, the day seemed on track for the first "normal" trials - one without major incident, upheaval, or misadventure - since at least 2002. Yesterday's Final One winners were repeating as Final Two winners and trials victors in each race, and you got the sense that it was going to be up to the single scullers (racing today in Final One after yesterday's semis) to add some excitement to the mix.
The sense of ease would not survive the Light Women's Quad race, however, not by a long shot. Shortly after the crews crossed the 1000 meter mark in a tight race, the rigger of bow seat Gretchen Horner-Wright of the Riverside/PennAC/Undine/Union crew ripped off, and Gretchen caught the butt of the oarhandle in the face. She did not get off as easily as Evan Price did yesterday, and ended up with a severe cut over her eye requiring nine stitches as well as a broken nose; the comment from the official's launch was "there's blood everywhere."
Obviously the crew stopped racing, but the other two crews kept going - all the way to the finish line some 900 meters later. The Potomac/Pocock Elite Sculling crew that won yesterday won a fairly close battle to the line, and would apparently have won the trial.
However, while a crab is not considered misadventure, the resulting injury that prevents an athlete from completing the race is considered as such, and the crew petitioned for a re-row the next day. It was not clear whether Horner-Wright would be able to compete, and the crew petitioned to allow Marika Page substitute into the crew for the Final Two re-row.
Complicating matters was the fact that Marika did not race today, and also did not have to weigh in; after some discussion, it was decided that the race will indeed be re-rowed on Friday, and Horner-Wright will race if possible pending a doctor's examination and note, Page will race if not. Ultimately it was decided that Britton Nixon will substitute into the boat, and not Marika Page as was originally petitioned.) That's a very tough way to end the season for Horner-Wright; everyone is pulling for her for a full and fast recovery.
Note: the following several paragraphs contain two corrections/new pieces of information: first, that Gretchen Horner-Wright did not catch a crab, but instead suffered damaged equipment that caused her rigger to rip off; also, as I understand it now at 10pm, Britton Nixon will substitute into the boat, and not Marika Page as was originally petitioned.)
Whew. The other events saw repeat winners in every boat - the resulting new US 2006 Worlds team members include:
Due to the higher number of entries, the single scull events went through semis yesterday, so raced Final One today to establish post position for the Final Two tomorrow. Jamie Schroeder and Mike Altman looked strong and relatively comfortable in winning their finals in the men's 1x and light men's 1x, respectively; the light women's 1x was more of a staredown to the finish, as it looked like Meghan Sarbanis had the race nearly locked up in the final 500 until Lisa Schlenker rowed from third place with 250 to go into the lead by about 150 to go, then cruised it in to the finish line as the other scullers somewhat conceded the final strokes. All of the heat and semi times pointed to a finals race a lot like this one, so if any event goes to a third final, this could be the one.
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