Heaps of racing to tell about today – let's skip the niceties and introductory drivel and get to it! (We're also getting kicked out of the media tent yet again.)
B Finals
In a slate of good B Finals, the Norwegian light men's single sculler winner in particular looked like an A finalist spurned; he was really cooking to the finish line.
But it was an extremely untimely crab/fumble/fold (not sure which?!?) in the Czech crew in the men's double that was the most dispiriting episode of the B finals this morning. The men's double qualifies 11 crews for the Olympics here, and with about 80 meters to go, the Czechs stopped rowing about 100 meters from the finish when it became clear they would not qualify, and eventually crossed the line over a minute behind the leaders. They did something similar in the semis the other day – very hard to watch.
Anyone wondering how much emphasis crews put on qualifying for the Olympics need only witness the celebration after the light men's four B final – fully seven guys jumped into the water, one swam to shore to greet friends and supporters, and one four got completely out of the boat so they could embrace and celebrate. You don't even see that in A finals at Worlds!
In a strange echo of the US situation, the German women placed last overall in the women's eight; where the German men's eight has been on top for some time now, the women are struggling, the exact opposite of the US. Not sure if there is anything to be learned from it, but it does seem a stark comparison.
Men's Quad semifinals
Neighboring Croatian crew won the first semi, followed by Russia and Poland as (more or less) eastern European countries kept the GB, US, and Swiss crews from making the A final. The top three crews finished only 0.9 seconds apart, and despite not being so far behind, the trailing crews never really mounted a sustained challenge to the leaders.
In the second semifinal, the split between Germany in first and Australia in second was an exciting 0.99 seconds, but the more critical separation of 0.08 between Italy in third and NZ in fourth was crushing for the Kiwis, and ecstasy for the Italians; that is the quad for you. By the way, check out the quote by Salov Igor below; talk about inscrutable.
Damir Martin (CRO)
"The race was incredible. We reached our goal and we hope we will manage to be so successful in the future."
Salov Igor (RUS)
"The race was fine. We are ready for the finals."
Jelinski Michael (POL)
"We are very happy that we made it to the A final. We had some difficulties but we hope we will manage them."
Tim Grohmann (GER)
"This was great and of course Olympic qualification was one of our aims. But honestly, as the World Cup leaders we were counting on getting the Olympic ticket at this event. The goal for the final now is a medal. "
Karsten Forsterling (AUS)
"Olympic qualification – great news, we didn't actually think about it as we were focused on this race and getting to the final, but of course the qualification was one of our goals. We didn't want to leave anything to chance and second place in the semi is a good result. Now it's all about recovery for tomorrow."
Matteo Stefanini (ITA)
"These were good conditions. With every race, we get stronger."
Men's pair semis
The British pair rowed themselves into the lead after spotting the Canadians a bit of water in the very early going, and at the finish line spun their boat around before everyone else had even stopped rowing, as they have been doing this week. This time they were called into a small dock at the end of the lake by their coaches, so didn't get the full effect of the paddle-off.
Despite a fourth place finish, the young US men's pair gave good account of themselves, which bodes well for the required top 11 finish in the B final tomorrow to nab a Games spot.
The GB pair's position on the event has been pretty consistent – they feel like they are a half length to a length behind the Kiwis. If you go by the times today, that's still the case; the NZ time was almost exactly three seconds faster. The splits tell a little different story, with the Brits showing a faster first 1000, and the NZ a faster second 1000; it will be a good final in any case.
Andrew Triggs Hodge (GBR)
"We had a good and solid race, just like one needs to have in a semi- final. It is a very exciting competition, and we are looking forward to the finals."
Scott Frandsen (CAN)
"This is a good step, we qualified the boat. Now we need to rest. The new schedule with back to back semis and A- finals is something we need to get used to."
Maximilian Munski (GER)
"We are very happy to have it into the final. We were the fifth ranked pair in Germany and when the decision was made that we would be rowing the pair, all we were aiming for was a spot in the final. And we knew that this would also automatically mean the Olympic qualification. So we have reached our main goal, have reached the peak, everything else in the final will be a bonus now."
Hamish Bond (NZL)
"We haven't raced since Sunday so it was good to get the feeling back again today in the semifinal. But tomorrow is the big day, that is what we have been waiting for all year."
Gkountoulas Nikolaos (GRE)
"We are extremely happy with the result. The race was difficult. We reached our goal to be in the finals and qualify for the Olympics."
Women's Double semis
Before today, I would have said no one could touch the GB double of Grainger and Watkins – and this still may be the case, but one would do well to wait until the final to see if the Australians Hore and Crow can make a show of it. To the eye, the GB pair is still the favorite; they actually had that look that some of Drew Ginn's boats have had in the past, where it sure doesn't look like they are at full pressure, or even much beyond half pressure. It will be interesting to see how they approach the A final.
The US crew was never really in the hunt in their semi, unfortunately, and will take the fight to the B final tomorrow, where they will have to come top two to qualify the boat to London. With the Germans, Serbs (made up of two former US collegiate rowers from Cal and USC), and China in the race, it will be a heater.
Crow (AUS)
"We had a few things to work on after the heat and made steps forward now in the semi. For the final we'll still take a few more steps."
Kerry Hore (AUS)
"Semis are the most nerve-wrecking races. Everybody wants to have that final spot, so it's great to have won this semi."
Katherine Grainger (GBR)
"We had a very good race, beautiful conditions. We were quite relaxed really, not expending too much energy with the A-finals coming tomorrow."
Fiona Paterson (NZL)
"We had a very good start, managed to get out well and hold it. Of course the Olympic Qualification was in the back of our mind, but it's just great to be in the final now. Recovery now and then to the final."
Men's Single Semi
The Cuban sculler could not stay on form through the semis today, and was never really in the hunt in a seasoned field that saw Alan Campbell, Ondrej Synek, and Marcel Hacker advance – that's a tough crowd from which to be learning the ropes for a 21 year old, phew.
Olaf Tufte had to sprint his way into the semi the other day, and today had to sprint his way into the final – and we're talking from pretty good-sized, open-water deficits. Does he have another one in him? We'll find out tomorrow… In the same semi Ken Jurkowski ran with the pack for the first third of the race, but could not chase Tufte up through the field, and placed fifth. Ken will try to qualify the US with a top five finish in the B final tomorrow, and given his form so far, should have a very good shot.
Marcel Hacker (GER)
"Awesome, this was just a cool and fun race. I'm back and the back held up. A big thank you to my operating and rehab team. They did a fantastic job to get me here. Everything from here on is an extra and a bonus. I'm in the final and I qualified for the Olympics- that was the main goal."
Mahe Drysdale (NZL)
"The main goal for Olympic qualification was accomplished. I can't wait for tomorrow's final."
Adaptive Men's Single Final
Defending World champion and world record holder Tom Aggar of Great Britain won it again today, but only by two seconds over Alexey Chuvashev of Russia. Meanwhile, Ron Harvey of the USA gave a good run at the medals, but somewhat uncharacteristically could not mount a late charge, and fell to fourth in the second half of the race behind Erik Horrie of Australia.
Men's Coxed Pair Final
Italy is back on top in the men's pair this year after sprinting through the Australian crew that was hoping to defend their title; meanwhile the Canadian crew came through from fifth at the thousand to fourth at 500 to go, and finally into bronze position in the very last stretch of the race. The 17-year-old Italian coxswain was standing up in the boat before the stern was even over the line; good times.
Interview with Pierpaolo Frattini, Italian stroke
The truth is we did our start, and our pace. We don't be impressed about the sprint, and when our cox started to call the final rush, we know that we can reach it, and we can arrive ahead.
Question: did you have any thoughts about picking up the tradition of winning for Italy in this event?
Yes. Bled is a lucky place for Italian pair. Here is the third gold in the history of the pair. So we don't break the tradition.
Did you feel pressure about this?
Yes, a little bit (laughs).
Interview with Vincenzo Capelli, Italian bow seat
Question: you did not have a very long time together; were you surprised to be able to win?
Yes, because we want it. When you want something with all your heart, you know that you can do it. If you train a lot, if you continue to push stroke after stroke. We do this for this final. At the last 500 meters, we know that we can win.
It took a lot here at the end, yes? Did your coxswain call you forward?
Yes, at the end, our cox said, Now, we have to win, let's go, and we catch what we want.
Did you feel the pressure of continuing the tradition of Italy in the pair?
Not so much. Not about the tradition, but about that next year, we have the Olympic games, and now we are in a non-olympic boat. So we have to win to get to the Olympic games next year.
Interview with Steven van Knotsenburg, Canadian pair
Question: Can you take us through the race?
The start was pretty good, we got off to a better than we had previously in the regatta. We worked on that last night, so I was happy that it came through on race day. Then we just kind of pushed out, we tried to tag the second five a little better than we did in the rep. we did it, but we found ourselves down on the field more than in the rep, which I guess isn't surprising… We started thinking 'time trial, time trial,' which is what our coach Mike Spracklen told us to think about – just go after it blinders. The third 500 we started drawing back even on some crews, and I guess we just got excited and went for it.
Brian was giving us the calls where we were, but they weren't making much sense to me; I was just counting strokes in my head, watching my oar, just trying to do everything I could to stay on pace.
Have you rowed the coxed pair much?
No, thankfully! It's probably one of the worst boats I've ever rowed, I don't ever want to row it again. It's too long, it's too heavy… get me out of here. I'll let you row the boat back to the dock for me!
Steven went on to describe how the crew coped with having their coxswain double into the eight:
In the pre-Worlds camp we did most of the workouts in the straight pair, because Brian was focusing on the eight which is the priority, and we were there supporting the team. So we rowed the straight pair, and we got to Bled and were doing about half the workouts in the coxed pair leading up to racing. Even yesterday morning we did the workout in the straight pair. It's definitely a big transition between the two.
What is it like to get out of one into the other?
It's like riding a bike downhill, and then riding the same bike uphill, and trying to make it feel the same.
After the men's eight yesterday, Brian Price held up the flowers he had received during the medal ceremony, and mentioned that he would have to medal today as well, as he has two daughters at home and needed one for each. Done!
Light women's single
Fabiana Beltrame's win in the single was the first ever gold medal for Brazil in a world championships – wow. She also won it in a massive way, with a lead of over 6 seconds with 500 to go, which decreased down to 3.6 seconds only because she was so absurdly far ahead, especially for a lightweight event.
Ursula Grobler of the US looked really good in second position to the halfway point, but struggled in the third 500, and ultimately placed fourth.
Interview with Beltrame, Brazil LW1x
You won by a lot, were you surprised at this?
Yes, very surprised, because in the heat and the semifinal, my time was just like her. So I did my first 1000 very hard, very fast, and I decide that I want this gold. This is the first medal for Brazil in a world champ, so I am very happy.
The first ever in any event?
The first ever, ever, so it is historical.
Will you be famous at home?
I think so, yeah! I had a gold in Hamburg this year, it was the first ever in a World Cup, so I am very happy.
Lightweight men's single sculls
Henrik Stephansen of Denmark won by even more than did Beltrame, but after watching him this past week, I don't think anyone was surprised; this guy can go. He seems to hold back for 500 meters – he was sixth at 500 gone, rows a bit up into the pack for a while, and then just unloads at the 1000 in a way I haven't seen since the old film reels of guys coming back from 4-5 length deficits to win.
On the US front, Andrew Campbell had a great row going into the third 500 of the race, but couldn't keep pace with the vets around him, and fell into fourth behind Pietro Ruto of Italy and Duncan Grant of NZ. An outstanding senior debut for Campbell, who in the past fourteen months or so has been in A finals at the Junior Worlds, U23 Worlds, and Senior Worlds. Doubles partner anyone?
Interview with Henrik Stephansen (very short interview due to pressing medal ceremony)
Question: if the second part of the race, you have the ability to go very fast. How do you do that?
By a lot of time training, building up my good condition; I have a high Vo2max, and that gives good help when it comes to the second half of the race, to keep on going.
Interview with Duncan Grant of New Zealand
I knew that Henrik is really fast over the second half of the race, and I obviously don't have the raw power that he has, so I have to use my speed and try to get as far as front of him at the start as I could. It wasn't enough, and he hit the 1000 and you could just see him take it up a gear or two and then push thourgh, and at the same time I was battling with Italy for second place. He also really called it out for the second 1000. The strategy for my race was you have to try to hold on for the second 1000 to keep him at bay, and today I couldn't. I see some things that I have to go home and work on now, all relating to my middle 1000, and we'll see what happens. I was a lot happier with a medal than coming outside things, so I may be disappointed in my goal, but I do still come away with a medal.
Men's Double
For sheer crazy, the men's double rarely fails to come through. Once again this year, the New Zealand crew unleashed an inhuman sprint to take the race on the last part of the last stroke (check out this sequence) from a courageous German crew that had bet the farm from the start, and had to settle for silver (although not unhappily, it seemed once they were on land again). How good was it? The defending Olympic champ Australian crew placed fourth, and the defending silver medal British crew placed a crushing sixth.
Before you do anything else, check out this sequence of the bows surging to the finish in this race – it ain't over til it's over!!
Interview with Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan of the NZ M2x
Question: To what do you guys credit your ability to sprint through time after time? (both laugh)
Nathan Cohen: We always train that it's going to be so close, and today we didn't know if it was enough, but we just try to be the best we can, and that's how we keep going.
Question: What were you thinking here as you were closing in, two feet, one foot, just barely ahead?
Choen: I had one look, I think, and I knew we had to go, and then just keep calling it up, just keep trying to move.
Question: Would you guys rather not have to do this?
Sullivan: Oh yeah (laughs). It would be much simpler to be in front, but it's just not possible, we have to put everything into it.
Question: do you purposely hang back at all?
Cohen: No, no, the other crews are just so strong, and we're not big strong guys; you have to use what you've got.
What is it about the double that we have seen so many great sprints over the years?
Cohen: for us it doesn't feel like we're getting much faster, it's just that we don't slow down as much.
Sullivan: I don't know; maybe we all need to go faster at the start!
Light men's four
In an event known for savagely close finishes (almost numerically too close in some cases – just because you can measure one thousandth of a second doesn't make it a whole lot more than a matter of chance, really), you could actually tell just by watching the race who medalled today – and the Australian four won by what seemed like an immense margin of 1.23 seconds for this event. They ran in first the whole second 1000, and no one was gaining on them, which in this event means they were absolutely hellbent on the win. It turns out that bow seat Anthony Edwards, at age 39, is seeing the lights go out on his career, and exhorted his boys over the line a bit.
The race for the bronze was bitterly contested, tho, with defending champs GBR having to settle for third – they were clearly unhappy - just ahead of China and then Denmark.
Interview with Anthony Edwards, AUS light men's four
After previously getting the bronze, how does the gold feel?
Oh, it's just the absolute sweetest thing you could ever get. I knew this was my last go, outside the Olympics next year, but I never looked once, I thought if we just do the job, we'd have better speed, and I looked about a stroke before the line, and that was it.
Q: Race execution was pretty much perfect.
It was, we had a really good race. I guess we just had pure confidence in each other and knew if we got it right all the way down, we would have the boat speed.
What about, getting into next year, obviously the boat is in a fantastic place for London.
It's a nice feeling now, as a four, or as a five with Rick, we can just go down and do the job and get ready for next year. There's a little sweet revenges going on in there amongst the field as well.
Question: there is a tradition in the straight four that is very strong in Australia, but it has been a while since the lightweights have done it. Were you guys thinking about that at all, was it inspiration?
All my years in rowing, I've gone around the circle of the lightweight four, silver in 2000, silver in Athens, and lost its way in Beijing, and I feel like I've helped turned the four back to where it should be.
Last year's lightweight final was beep beep beep beep; were you anticipating that, did you do anything about that today?
I think we were just a lot more aware of the field, and have a better crew, a stronger crew physically and mentally, and we're always prepared for a fight, and here today we got more than that.
Women's eight
The US women fulfilled their attempt to, ah, six-peat! With a third of length win over a very game Canadian boat that charged the first 1000 with abandon. The US pulled into first at some point late in the third 500, and never let up, if they also didn't blow the race open. The surprise of the race might have been the GB crew, particularly in the way the race unfolded, as they were in fifth position with 500 to go and pulled a 1:27 last 500 to take the bronze, with which they were clearly elated. Romania and the Netherlands (who have been fighting a team-wide stomach virus, and had to sub in Femke Dekker for the final as a result) took the other two 2012 qualifying positions.
Interview with the US women's eight
Caroline Lind: we knew that the race was going to be a tough one from start to finish, but personally I was ready to rock and roll. Its' been a year since I was on the team, and I was just so thrilled to be in a boat with these girls. I think from the very first stroke, we knew we were together, and powerful, and pushing legs together, and we were just committed the entire way down. We listened to the best coxswain in the world, Mary Whipple, and we knew it might take the entire 2k, which it did, but we listened to her and we were determined. We listened to her and we went when we had to go.
This point where it took the whole 2k, it's different than it has been sometimes?
Mary Whipple: a win's a win! There are so many good crews out there, and so for London 2012 we're going to expect it to come down to six boats across with 10 strokes to go. You have to respect every boat out there, because everyone wants to go as fast as possible. So we try to go as fast as possible, and when we crossed the line, we looked around. Again, I gave them a little hint what we were going to do (laughs)…
At what point did you have the lead?
I don't know – we pulled up kind of level with 500 to go, and with about 300, 250 to go, we had the lead.
Question: what we you thinking in the last five strokes?
Two people: More, more.
Lind: I was thinking – stay with (stroke seat) Elle, follow Elle, I'm on Elle.
Elle, what were you thinking then?
Elle Logan: I just listen to Mary, I don't really think. I'm a machine, really.
Lind: Elle's our resident machine!
Jamie Redman: yeah, I had no idea where the other crews were, where the finish line was, I was just listening to Mary and following Elle, the whole way down.
Anyone, other thoughts?
It was fun.
It was really fun.
Interview with Darcy Marquardt and Ashley Brzozowicz, CAN W8
DM: We were confident we could challenge for the lead at the end, and during the race we were back and forth, I wasn't really sure, I sit in seven seat, but it was a good battle. Number one was to qualify Canada for a women's eight berth, and of course it would have been nice to win, but there's always next year at the Olympics.
AB: We came here to win, and I think everyone in the A final came here to win. We just went out and had a really good race, and we had some really strong competitors here, and it's a big challenge to even qualify; so it's of course disappointing because you want to win, but yeah, it's a good result.
Question: you're getting closer and closer to the front, do you think you can make up the last little bit?
DM: well, I think another solid winter of traininig –our coach I'm sure will have us working hard in the gym and on the ergometer and in the boats.
Was it your plan today to try to race from the front?
AB: our plan was just to go out and race our race plan, and you can't control the speeds of the other boats, so you just go out there and you lay your heart on the line, look up when you cross the finish line, and see what happened. We listen to what Lesley says, and do the best job we can.
DM: our coach tells us before every final that it's the crew that keeps their hands in the fire the longest that ends up on top. I think every crew out there had their hand in the fire, and we'll have to keep working to withstand that.
Question: the final was exciting in the sense that there were lots of crews in the mix; do you think the women's eight is getting harder, tighter, better?
AB: I think all the events are getting faster and stronger, and every year you don't know which boat countries have prioritized. I think the women's eight is always going to be competitive.
DM: we've seen it a lot in other events this weekend, boats barely qualifying or missing by hundreds of seconds, so we know that we are all stepping up in all events.
Notes from the course:
Guards at the course have tightened things up a bit; they even pushed back the big Kiwi – check out the photo on Facebook where the guard is working over the giant stuffed animal.
One of the local clubs is very tuned in to the new FISA schedule; they put up posters all over the place advertising "the first athlete party of the regatta" that listed all of the events that concluded yesterday, from adaptive events to the men's eight.
There have been a lot of racing delays this week at the start, all due to the presence of swans in front of the crews in the gates. Bled Lake is full of swans, particularly in the starting area, which is right in town in front of restaurants and hotels, and where the swans are fed by hundreds of people all day long. They have no problem swimming right out in front of the crews – and the racing waits for the swans, not the other way around.
Eight-crew events are tough to watch when the B final comes around – they tend not to be very close, so end up like a mismatched spring collegiate dual meet, oof.
Today was a day with almost no US crews in the B finals (and five crews in the A finals), while tomorrow there will be four crews in B finals, with two in A finals.
Finally, does anyone else think the new FISA logo looks like the rotating "loading" circle in Windows?
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