Day two of racing at the US trials for the 2007 Rowing World Championship team featured a grab-bag of events: two repechages, six semifinals, four Final Ones, and a time-trial to top it off. Here's some of what we saw from the muddy banks of the Mercer.
In the LW1x, Jen Goldsack's second day of racing on US waters was no less convincing than the first, as she won her semi by clear water over Renee Hykel, who also advanced to tomorrow's final. But the real story was in the other heat, which found no fewer than three former US light women's single scullers in one semi; this time Julia Nichols and Melissa Rice reprised their 1-2 finish from yesterday, albeit in different order, and sent home two established scullers: Meghan Sarbanis, the 2006 US LW1x, and Worlds medalist and Olympian Lisa Schlenker. Oof. The first Final occurs tomorrow morning, when then "just qualify" option disappears and the real racing begins.
I've been hesitant to make any predictions about the light men's single, and a look at the times in today's semis shows why: seven scullers within four seconds of one another (with only four advancing to tomorrow's racing). This may be the most wide open event of the trials; that said, only Ivan Baldytchev has had the speed to meet the time standard thus far.
In the men's coxed pair, a Penn AC trio led the whole way, but the tussle for second was interesting enough; the eventual victor to take second was a California RC duo of Mike Holbrook and Elliot Hovey who had never even rowed in a coxed pair before this week, when they traveled east, picked up a spare coxswain, and boarded the lead sled for the first time. A bludgeoning last 500 took them from third into second; the top three boats advance to Final Two tomorrow. From the all in the family department, stroke Holbrook is the first cousin of 2004 Olympic quad member Ben Holbrook.
The coxed four sure looks like a stacked beast, with 2004 men's eight engine room gold medalist Matt Deakin and Dan Beery in the bow pair, and Chris Liwski and Sam Burns in the stern pair. The crew seemed to cruise to the 500-to-go mark, then put the hammer down, going from a few feet open water to more like 5 seconds by the finish line. They beat the time standard comfortably.
Finally, an Undine light men's quad took a solo shot at time standard in the last "race" of the day; when I saw them launch, there was a very light tail breeze; by the time they came down the course, it had shifted pretty much to a direct cross, which most of you know feels like a headwind if you're sitting in the boat. The SpeedCoach has really changed the dynamic of time trials since my days using a thumb-sized Sachs timer; the Undine caller was calling splits, instantaneous boat speed, seconds left on the time standard, you name it. Must be pretty good at math.
Today's Time Standard Watch:
LM1x semi Ivan Baldytchev met standard right on the mark
LW1x - all but one sculler met standard
LM2- Simon Carcagno and Matt Smith beat standard by 1.475
LW4x - Vesper/NYAC met standard on the mark
M4+ Caspersen Training Center beat standard by over two seconds
Mens Ltwt 4x met their standard today - no time is currently available
Racing continues tomorrow with another mixed collection of races - a bunch of Final One races, a bunch of Final Two races, and some scheduled Time Standard rows, although winds don't look quite predictable just yet, so that may change to wait for more friendly conditions.
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