Final One of the 2009 US trials is in the books, with 15 events contested, including four crews participating in row-overs simply to make sure they are capable of competing (and weighing in in the case of lightweight rowers) now named to the US 2009 squad. The top three from all other races will advance to tomorrow's Final Two; if today's winner wins again tomorrow, they will be named to the 2009 team; if not, the two remaining crews will advance to a Saturday morning winner take all third final.
In the first race of the morning in the men's 1x, Warren Anderson walked away with his race, winning so easily that he yelled back to spectators cheering at the 500 to go mark.
In the women's single, Brett Sickler raced gamely, but Margot Shumway's very efficient stroke allowed her to control the race from the lead most of the way. This one will go to another day, but the contrast across the lanes was fairly stark, with Shumway understroking everyone, and it will take a pretty good effort for someone to get on terms with and then have to get ahead of Shumway tomorrow.
The men's double was the race of the day, with a massive sprint by the Graves brothers earning them a win that looked lost as late as 500 to go. The brothers were a solid length down on Steve Whelpley and Michael Sivigny at 500 to go, but started sprinting early, and quickly made a dent in that margin. From the shore it looked like Whelpley and Sivigny responded to the Graves first push, but either did not expect or could not counter the continued onslaught from behind as the Graves wound the rating up to 42 with 200 to go to take the lead and the win by a half second at the line. It will be interesting to see how the rematch plays out tomorrow morning; now that the Graves brothers have shown their hand, can the other crews recast their race plans and mount a better response? Do the Graves brothers Then again crews with a good sprint tend to scare people, and if it is close with 500 to go tomorrow, the seed of doubt may have been planted today. The momentum could swing either way; this will be one to watch.
In the women's pair, the familiar tableau of two relatively closely matched pairs coming out of the women's eight played out again today, with Erin Cafaro and Susan Francia using a strong second 1000 to take the first final from Caroline Lind and Lindsay Shoop. The latter crew rowed in the lead to the 1000, but Cafaro and Francia did a little bump to get out front with 550 to go, and that was the race. The two crews will meet again tomorrow in Final 2.
In the men's pair, Charlie Cole and David Banks also raced without competition, looking really pretty good while doing so for a crew that was not pushed. Both the men's and women's lightweight doubles were one-boat rowovers, as was the light men's eight at the end of the program. All of these boats are named to the 2009 US team as of today.
In most cases the crews involved in the rowovers had established themselves as frontrunners over the past several weeks and months such that their possible competition chose to row in other events, or simply to take a pass on trials, and perhaps race instead at the Canadian Henley, for example. That said, with so many clamoring for more opportunities to make the Worlds and Olympics squads, it is disappointing that three of the four rowover events are Olympic-class boats (the men's pair and the light men's and women's doubles). Isn't there anyone who wants a shot at those spots over the next four years? You would think in a post-Olympic year that trials would be swarming with 2012 hopefuls.
Both the light men's and women's singles had clear frontrunners, with Cody Lowry and Meghan Sarbanis winning their events by seven and 14 seconds, respectively. The light men's pair was also a bit of an easy run for John Wainwright and Alex Rothmeier, who won by 25 seconds. In the coxed pair, three Penn AC crews gave chase but could not make much of a dent in the Training Center pairs runaway performance; three of the four will come back tomorrow to race again.
Of the two light quads, the men's quad provided the greater interest today as a big sprint by GMS/Vesper drew them within a second of GMS/Vesper/Malta in the final 500. On the evidence, they'll need to go a bit sooner tomorrow to take the trials to a third day.
Finally, two Training Center women's straight fours raced off in a fashion that was probably somewhat predictable to everyone involved, as the crews have been involved in racing and selection for weeks, and the open water result did not leave a lot of room for interpretation.
In the uncontested races, those crews are now named to the US teams. It would be hard to surmise much from the times, as a couple did full pulls, and others clearly were doing training pieces; the lightweight eight, for example, was at 32.5 strokes per minute in the third 500, and bumped to 34 at the 500 to go, not close to flat out.
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