Well, today's racing ended with a headscratcher; as the sun came out and the fairly reasonable headwind that had been blowing all day began to subside, the FISA Fairness Commission cancelled the remainder of racing in the six-boat races due to unfair conditions (these include the women's quad, men's quad, and men's four reps; and the women's eight heats). If the current conditions are unfair, we are in trouble the rest of the week, because it is beautiful out there. I could see cancelling a windsurfing event due to lack of conditions, but that is about it.
For what it's worth (or in all fairness if you prefer), making fairness calls on a very narrow course with tall trees on either side is tricky business, as is relying on weather forecasts to know what to do; many of us who help run regattas have seen this up close. But if there are disadvantaged lanes, you could seed all the reps from the heats, which would leave only the one heat of the afternoon, the women's eights, vulnerable to unfair conditions. And since it is only a heat, with only one advancing from each heat, the inconvenience of a rep doesn't seem too crazy to risk.
The remaining races will be contested tomorrow from 1:11pm to 1:53pm on seven-minute centers; the events most affected would seem to be the Men's Fours and Men's Quads, both of which have semis on Thursday – a Tuesday evening rep and a Thursday afternoon semi is one thing, but now going back to back on Wednesday and Thursday could be a lot tougher.
Anyway, on to the racing that did happen – for the morning adaptive reps, see the report posted earlier focusing directly on those races.
Today was the rep day for most of the Sunday races, along with a Preliminary Race for Lanes for the light men's eight, and the heats of the women's eight. The US had avoided a bunch of today's reps as reported on Sunday, and two of the three crews who did get to race today advanced nicely.
Light Women's Double
In the light women's double, Michelle Sechser and Devery Karz were faced with a very acute task – take the top two of four in a very closely matched group. It was a thriller of a race, savagely tight for well over half of the race, and with every crew in the race in qualifying position at some point. The US crew raced to 500 gone in third place, but about 0.2 seconds separating everyone, it was pretty much even. They pushed out to a small lead in the second 500 and never let it go, despite a bruising race about half a stroke behind them all the way down.
The pace was driven from behind by the Czech crew, who raced in fourth for over half of the race, then pushed into third, and finally past the Danish crew into the second qualifying spot in the final strokes of the race as the Americans pushed hard to keep clear of the fray. The Czech stroke collapsed in the boat, though after receiving some attention from the medical boat, she sat up smiling, albeit weakly.
US bow seat Devery Karz noted that the headwind conditions created a very different racing scenario than the huge tailwind in the heat.
"It was just another challenge - Sunday big tailwind, today a headwind," she said. "It was about a minute longer than Sunday because of the switch, so just being able to row in both and not letting one be your strength was important. And you know that everybody’s going to gun for it because the difference between going to the C/D semi or the A/B semi.
As the Czech and Danish crews duked it out behind them for the second advancing spot, Karz said the US relied on technique and calls to keep ahead.
"Just back to technical, sit up, make it light, because if you’re cranking on it and it’s heavy you’re not going to go far so stay together," she said. "We had focused on that ahead of time so we knew what we needed to do coming into it, just executing. Those are some fast crews."
Men's Pair
The US men's pair looked to be having a similar race, racing in second in the early going, and pushing into what looked like a comfortable-ish lead past the 1000, followed by the Turkish crew as the rest of the field fell behind, really out of qualifying position. But the Turkish crew did not back down, and as the US crew started to coast down to around 31 strokes per minute, the Turks started to wind the rating up. In the last 500, the Turkish crew just pounced through, and the US crew seemed somewhat uninclined to worry about it, as the next nearest crew was over two lengths behind.
Back on land, Charlie Cole and Glenn Ochal said they had liked their first 1000, but would be looking to improve their second 1000 down the skid.
"We got out into a good rhythm, and then we struggled down the track," Cole said. "It was definitely a positive step from the heat, and I think we’re looking forward to the semi. Our best race is still ahead of us, so I think we’re excited to keep trying to improve through the week."
"We had the mentality today, let’s race it rather than row it kind of thing," Ochal said when comparing this rep to the heat, where the crew had some trouble getting going. "We raced it today and we were fine. We just need to do that in the semifinals, where hopefully our second half will be better, and I think it’ll take care of itself."
Light Men's Racing
In the Preliminary Race for lanes in the light men's eight, the US eight never really got into the thick of it, and by mid-race was well behind the leading Italian crew, who are the defending champions. Really only three crews gave it much of a go in this one: the Italians, Germans, and Turkish crew raced with closed water between them for 1500 meters, while the US in fourth was a stretch of open water behind from the second 500 on.
The US light men's pair looked pretty game early in their race, but faltered late, finishing sixth; they will row in the C final.
Well, that's it for today - I thought there would be a lot more to tell, but that's not how it worked out. Here is what it looked like at the moment the last heat of the women's eight heat would have been coming down the course, whew – oh the humanity.
Notes from the course
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