A day of reps put in stark relief the vast expanse between joy (and booked Olympic spots in their events) for many, and utter agony for others; without further ado, let's get on to reports from the races and words from the athletes.
Adaptive Racing
Both the US men's single Ron Harvey and the LTA Mixed four won their reps, both going away – Harvey rowed from behind, as he is wont to do, while the four rowed from the front all the way. Tricia Downing in the women's single, along with the double, will row in the B finals, and will have to have really good races to qualify in each event for the Paralympics.
See our extremely compelling interview with doubles stroke seat Tony Davis in the video section.
Ron Harvey had the following to say about his race:
"I was just looking to be top three to advance to the semifinals, and I was just being patient through the first 500 meters to see where I was. Then I started walking through the top two guys, but just kept a steady pace and went through. It was a good solid race, but pretty comfortable, and it's good to advance.
"Our semifinal is going to be very tight, and I'm going to have to go out faster and bring it home faster. There are probably nine or 10 boats that could realistically make it to the A final."
On the possible switch to 2000 meters for adaptive rowing:
"I have wanted 2000 meters for many years, and I think that as long as we know enough in advance, everyone will switch the training, and it will make the races more about strategy and pacing. I think we're certainly capable of doing it, and I'd like to see it happen. It will also make us feel more part of what everyone else is doing, that we are racing the same race they are, and we would integrate better with the senior team events."
In the US four, US stroke seat Eleni Englert said "We had a pretty smooth race. I feel personally that it was much better than (Monday's heat), so it was an improvement in that sense. But also as a group, having a second chance to reassess where we are in comparison to other groups, just to practice again what we have been doing all summer, just reaffirmed that we have the speed that it takes.
"We were five seconds faster today, so that's good," she said. "And to be out in the front was a confidence boost. We definitely have our work cut out for us in the semifinals. But it's just nice to go into it with more confidence."
Moran Samuel (ISR)
"I'm very excited about coming first in this heat. The final will be very hard, but I'm ready for it. I only started rowing nine months ago, when they did some talent identification at my wheelchair basketball squad. They came to the training and picked me off the court and put me in the boat and it's great to row here now."
Jongrey Lee (KOR)
"I'm very, very happy about winning this rep and qualifying for the Paralympics next year. It will be my second Paralympic Games after Beijing. But first the final now and I will be fighting."
Liudmila Vauchok (BLR)
"I am happy about qualifying for the Olympics. After taking silver in Beijing, and having 2 gold and 2 bronze medals in the Paralympic Winter Games in cross country skiing I expected to make it. I don't know if I can make it to the medals this year, but it is next year, London that counts for me"
Claudia Santos (BRA)
"After winning the gold in 2007, my sixth place in Beijing was a real disappointment. I want to set things right in London, so this qualification means a lot to me. I am so emotional because this has been a hard year. I had surgery and little time to train and my goal here was really to qualify for London. I have not thought about the finals yet, but each race stands on its own, you never know, I might even make it into the medals…."
Kathryn Ross & John McLean (AUS)
Kathryn Ross: "It's great we have the first box ticked now. Hopefully a medal in the final will be next, but it will be very tight racing and very close. The qualification is definitely a weight off our shoulders. To have qualified the boat for Australia is great and now we can focus on the final."
John McLean: "It's fantastic to qualify the boat for the final and ultimately for the Games next year. Kat did a great job today and we can look forward to the A final now. We turned it around pretty quickly from yesterday. We sat down as a crew and talked about what we needed to do and then went out and got the result today."
Silvia de Maria (ITA)
"How cool is this. Up to now this was the most important thing – to qualify the boat. Now it's the final we will focus on and I can't wait. We've been rowing together for one year, and as long as nobody stronger than us comes along, we will be rowing in London next year. And I'm pretty sure it will be us. It's just wicked to have qualified the boat for Italy".
Samantha Scowen (GBR)
"We really came here to qualify for the Olympics in our home country. We took off quickly today and I am so pleased we made it. The finals will be competitive, all good crews and I am now looking forward to that"
Xiaoxian Lou (CHN)
"We have only been rowing together in this team for 3 months. Our goal was to make Paralympic qualification and we are proud to have achieved that. Now we will give our best in the final, getting the best result possible."
Men's double
By midmorning, when the senior events started, the morning's calm had given way to a strong tailwind and very bumpy conditions (albeit not caused by launch wakes, from what I could see). The US men's double of Peter and Thomas Graves uncharacteristically struggled with the conditions; bow seat Peter Graves noted that the "conditions should have suited us," but the crew never really established a solid platform from which to challenge the frontrunners.
Peter Graves on the race:
"We didn't have a clean enough row, and were slapping too many puddles. There was no way we were going to win with a row like that. We know we have a really good sprint, but given those problems, it was really hard to mount the charge. We really didn't get a chance to use it, because we couldn't find the target. When I heard the finish buzzer go off, and looked at my timer and it said 6:12, I thought well, those guys deserve it. Obviously the chance to qualify the boat is gone, but we are going to see what we can do to have a better race next time out."
Light men's four
The light men's four is a nutty event; anyone who was following the Worlds last year remember the insanely close final, and this year's reps included a heap of World Champions, yeesh. The US crew rowed in third (in the two-to-advance reps) the whole way by about a half second, and just couldn't make any dent in that margin against the French crew right in front of them; the crew will now row in the C/D semifinals.
"I think that may be as fast as I have ever gone in a four," said three seat and Olympic vet Will Daly, noting that the crew's time would have qualified them in any of the other three reps. "We know we can't qualify the crew for the Olympics now, but we can still get work done, and I'm going to stay up for our next two races."
Canada suffered a similar fate, rowing in third place all the way down the course, and falling by an even smaller margin of 0.36 seconds at the line, oof. Both North American crews will have to try to qualify for the Games at the final World Cup next year.
One note on the lineups for the event: there were fully four sets of brothers in crews in the reps (two of them in the German boat), including at least one pair of twins.
Women's Quad
In a rep that included the defending champion GB crew, and a Chinese crew with two defending Olympic gold medalists, the US crew emerged victorious with a stellar effort that two-seat Natalie Dell said "just synched up." Their timing was good, as the crews were all separated by about the length of a click; only 0.8 seconds separated a win and a failure to advance (and also to lock up a spot for 2012); the GB crew came up short this time. The effort puts the US and Chinese crews through to the A final, cementing a spot for both in the event for the 2012 Games. The GB crew heads to the B Final, where they still have a chance to grab the seventh and final qualification spot with a win--but no one in the British camp can be happy about even the chance of having to try to qualify next summer.
Natalie Dell took us through the race (see the video interview with Natalie here):
"It was very exciting; on our start we were just down off Great Britain and up on China, and we pulled even with Great Britain around 1000 meters, and China came racing towards us at about 500 to go. At that point I didn't really know where we were, and we edged China out at the very last second. It was a very exciting race, and lots of chop. I think we handled it very well as a crew; it was a bit of a circus out there, but we stayed composed; Megan Kalmoe did a great job in the stroke seat just being very composed, and Stesha (as well) calling everything in the back, and I think everything just synched up very well."
Adrienne Martelli (USA)
"This race was very exciting, with Great Britain, China and us being so close together. We are simply happy now that we made it"
Ziwei Jin (CHN)
"This was not easy, but we did what we came for, so we are satisfied. For now."
Sally Kehoe (AUS)
"It was a very tough race because of the hard conditions, but it was fair. This is repechage racing, there is a lot at stake you need to get in front as anything can happen. We are sure of qualification now and are thrilled."
Tetiana Kolesnikova (UKR)
"We have been switching positions a lot, only two of us competed in the quad in Lucerne, and a week ago 3 of us were taken from the eight into this quad. We are very happy that we qualified for the Olympics, it all worked out."
Men's' Quad
The story of the day in the M4x was Cuba's advancement; in third at the 1000, the crew posted the fastest third 500 as well as the fastest final 500 to blast past the Czech Republic and into the A/B semis, from which 11 of the 12 crews will ultimately earn a spot at the Games by the end of racing.
In the other rep, New Zealand rowed back from fourth place in the early going to win an extremely tight race, just 0.01 seconds ahead of Great Britain, and only a second ahead of France, who drops into the C/D bracket as a result. The profile of the NZ crew's grind through the field is compelling: they had the fourth fastest first 500, third fastest second 500, second fastest third 500, and fastest fourth 500.
Men's Pair
The US crew fixed up their typically slow start a bit today, but still had to rely on their ability to row themselves back into the thick of things, which came through for them today in spades. Rowing in third (and out of the A/B semis) to the 1500m mark, and holding off a tough mid-course challenge from Egypt they revved it good at 250-300 to go, their blades really grabbing the water and their hull visibly surging. It carried them to a last 500 that was fully 2 seconds faster than anyone else in the race, and the second qualifying spot in the semis.
"Those guys were quick, especially in the first thousand," stroke Tom Peszek said of the Egyptians. "We would have been surprised either way. We haven't really seen those guys (in competition) very much, but they're obviously pretty tough guys. It seemed like they had us a couple of times. We stuck to our guns. We knew those guys were good. They've beaten us before, so we weren't unprepared for it. In the last 500, Justin just made the call and we just went after it. It was do or die and we just somehow got the upper hand on them. It was a very, very tough race. There was a lot going on out there. There was a lot of chop and two really solid crews on either side of us."
With 11 crews qualifying for 2012, the US crew needs only to beat one crew come finals time.
Women's Doubles
In the same way that the British crew controlled the heat yesterday, the US double did the same today in the rep, to the extent that with 600 meters to go, the announcers were calling them down at 33 strokes per minute. It was a wire-to-wire win, an extremely competent and almost easy-looking go for the crew, who were all smiles going past the grandstands after the race.
Sarah Trowbridge on their race:
"We had great competition in there, and there was definitely a lot of racing going on, especially for that second spot, so we just tried to make sure that we executed our race plan, kept our wits about us in that water, and honestly just got out there and raced. We didn't worry too much about other things going on, we just wanted to get a race in."
On qualifying the boat for the Olympics:
"That was definitely a critical part, because if we had not moved on today we wouldn't have been able to qualify the boat for the Olympics. That will come with the next race, and for the most part we're going to look to execute our race as opposed to focusing too much on the outcome."
Question: This rep was very different from the heat; you ran the show in this race; after experiencing the heat was that your plan, or hope, for today?
"We definitely hoped it would go this way, but I think we just remembered to trust ourselves as racers, and we put like one percent more energy into thinking about moving the boat off that start, and I think that worked out really nicely. It was great; Kate was really aggressive off the start, and I felt like I could just lock and throw it."
Question: Were you surprised at the size of the lead you had in the middle of the race?
"I think we didn't consider it a very large lead, and we thought at any time that people racing off of each other, because it was two to move on, we could quickly have boats into us or through us with any of their moves. We just made sure that we were able to answer back at any time, so we didn't really consider it a large lead."
It was a good strategy, as the margin between second and a spot in the semis, and third and no chance at the medals or the Olympics, was 0.82 seconds.
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