After a really pretty successful first day of racing yesterday, day two of the 2014 World Championships was a decidedly tougher day for US crews. Of the 13 US crews racing today (most in heats, with one in a rep), only one crew advanced on the day, the women's four. Everyone else is headed to the reps save for single sculler Yohann Rigogne, who despite a valiant go, could not advance to the quarterfinals and will race in the EF semis (read more about Yohann here).
Men's Eight
Reviewing the day in reverse order, the final race of the day was the men's eight, with the US in the second of two heats. Before the racing began, coach Luke McGee noted that at least a couple crews could be fast starters, especially the Polish and Russian crews. The US had won the second World Cup with a really fast start, so the rest of the world was aware of that as a strength of the US, and the Poles in particular clearly came prepared.
The Polish crew took it out hard, and kept going, to the point where they had open water on the entire field by the 1000. Mind you, there are a batch of Olympians in the Polish crew, at least if their tattoos are any indication. But when both the US and Russian crews started coming back on them, they almost miraculously pushed out again, which honestly no one watching the race could believe. They may have had some help being in Lane 7 in a crosswind, but still it was pretty good.
The men's eight is a funny race, though, and going through the reps isn't always a curse, particularly due to the fact that the heat winner has to wait almost a week to race again, and that the A final is always an interesting equalizer. And as fast as Poland appeared, Germany went two seconds faster in the previous heat, so we'll have to wait til Sunday to say much more about this event.
As the day came to a close, McGee took the long view of the day's racing.
"I thought there were some boats that had a tough day, but at the same point, I think there was some good things happening out there, so it's a matter of whether they can actually pick out what was good, and what they have to change," he said. "It's a long regatta, and if they can do that, then there are pieces they can build off of.
"And it's the same for us. I thought they did some good things, and there are probably some points when we talk about the race that they are going to want to sharpen up in the rep. Like I said, we have to manage the emotions the whole week. The goal is to have the best one in the last one."
Women's Four
The US women's four was the only US crew to advance on the day, and they had to go pretty hard to do it. Honestly, the announcers made it seem like it was an easy go, but athletes know better, and the US women admitted they had to fight for their margin all the way down the course. Listening to the race over the PA, it sounded like the US jetted out to a big margin, but I suspect that has something to do with folks just expecting the US to win women's races – it ain't quite that easy folks, whew. So while the announcers were saying the US had settled to a 33 and then started telling each member's rowing history, the US crew was fighting for seats.
"I didn't feel like we jetted out, but thank you," Adrienne Martelli said. "We were level with China for a while, thought they were the only ones, everyone else was fairly far behind. "
"I let them know when we were a seat up, and then two seats, and then three," Susan Francia said. "Finally we were a length up, but it wasn't right away."
"I honestly had no idea where any of the other boats were pretty much the whole time," Emily Regan said. "I just wanted to kind of go with the legs and try to make our pace."
"Our goal was to execute the race plan and we did that, which was to win," Francia said. "We have some more things to work on but it was a good first step."
More US Crews
As noted above, the rest of US crews racing today were unable to advance, and we'll save our interviews with those crews until next time.
The women's double placed second, coming in a patch of water behind the Australians, who they had raced very close in the past.
"For us, we're looking to peak for the final race," Megan O'Leary said. "Going into a regatta, we never want to have our best race as the first one. As a first race, we learned what we have to do. It's different conditions than what we've been practicing in all week, which is interesting. But, you get thrown those things, and you just have to roll with them. I think the rep will be good for us, because it gives us a chance to settle in and get even more prepared for the final on Sunday."
The light men's four finished one spot out of advancing with a row that the crew felt wasn't really representative of what they can do.
"Our normal weaknesses were our strengths, and vice versa," Anthony Fahden said. "The start was really pretty sharp and felt pretty efficient, and the body, maybe we weren't moving the shell as well as we normally do. When The Netherlands walked, I'm not sure if we scrambled, but we didn't really have it."
Adaptive Racing
US adaptive single sculler Blake Haxton got out to a great start in his heat, leading out of the gates, but the experience of GB Olympic champ Tom Aggar and Russian Alexey Chuvashev prevailed in the end, and Haxton placed third to head to the reps. Haxton reflected on his first international race after the heat.
"It was amazing; I think I was pretty wide-eyed the whole time taking everything in," he said. "The moment that actually it kind of sunk in was when we were sitting at the start and they poll the crews, and instead of my school or my own name they say United States of America. They say country, country, country and then you, and you know especially in the single, you're it. That was a pretty humbling experience to sit there and get to be the U.S. entry."
Haxton got off to a great start, but had switched to a heavier load in the tailwind of recent days, and in this morning's light head, may have missed the mark with the rig.
"I felt really good about my start, I felt like my line was pretty good," he said. "I think I actually went up a little too high. We put on a little longer oars last week just to try and get a little more oomph, and then the wind died down. Last week (in the tailwinds) I think it felt pretty good with the heavier load. I think I misgauged that a little bit, but again for a first international race, and you get to race guys like Tom and Alexi, what more could I hope for; it was great. It's been a lot of fun just being part of the team, getting to see people and know people. I'll come back for the reps tomorrow, and do everything we can to get through to the final. It'll be tough but we'll give it what we've got."
A bad start for US sculler Katelynne Steinke was exacerbated by a ruling that her boat was underweight after the racing, and Steinke will race in the reps. The boat was underweight (by 0.1kg) due to having the cushion that she rows on disallowed to be counted in the boat weight because it was not fixed to the seat; most other crews have their cushions affixed to the seat – with tape. So for the next race, Steinke will tape the cushion to the seat, problem solved. Odd one.
Notes from the course:
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