On this Wednesday at Worlds, there was some solid racing, and there was some wack racing – so let's start with the wack stuff and get it out of the way.
Andrew Campbell Bows Out in Pretty Unique Fashion
On that standard, it's easy to know where to start – with lightweight single sculler Andrew Campbell flipping during his race. Campbell, who with the women's double – and I'll get to them right after this- is one of the the USA's strongest medal hopes in the sculling boats, hit a buoy 500 meters into his race, lost his oar, watched in go over his head, and slowly tipped into the water.
Given the option by the umpire, Campbell smartly chose to climb back in his boat and row down the course, as otherwise the rules may have forced him out of the event entirely; better to get a time (of 11:47.1 it turned out) than to get a DNF and not be allowed to continue in the regatta. And he was a good sport about it, raising his hands after he came over the line, and smiled to his coaches when he got to the return dock, even if a bit pained.
I figured it was best to hear what happened directly from Andrew, and he was up for it; it's tough to show strong sportsmanship under these circumstances, so kudos to the young man for sure.
" I was coming through 500, and I clipped a buoy on my starboard side," he said. "The oar came out of my hand , and then immediately just crabbed hard and flipped me in the water. It is pretty devastating, as I know I could be a medalist at this regatta. I was on track to definitely make the podium. Of course it's pretty disappointing. There's nothing I can do, it's a freak accident; I don't even really consider it any fault of my own. It's unfortunate that the way these things work that I won't get to take part in the final, so I guess the only thing I can really do now is try to lay down a really fast time in the C final."
Campbell did have to climb back in the boat once before, in an eight while not rowing. He offered the following account in good humor.
"In the warm up of the 2011 Eastern Sprints, in the Freshman Lightweight 8 for the B final, I had just stopped rowing during our warmup and caught an ejector crab," he said. "So I did have to climb back in the boat then, but that's the last time it's happened to me so hopefully not ever again."
Of course it's a bit like ambulance chasing, but the flipping sequence starts here; you'll probably want to see it.
Despite his sportsmanship and levity, it really is a somewhat tragic sports moment, particularly in light of the fact that next year most scullers will be focused on finding a doubles partner and qualifying the boat for the Olympics -so this was Campbell's cleanest shot at a senior singles world title for a while.
Women's Double's Turn to Lose an Oar
The USA women's double had a really superb last 1000, but it turned out they really didn't have an option, having clipped a buoy at around the 500 meter mark that spun bow seat Megan O'Leary's oar around, forcing the crew to stop and fix it.
I had missed this fact on the PA, or maybe the announcers had missed it, and complimented the crew on a really explosive second 1000.
"Well, thanks, it had to be," Ellen Tomek said with a laugh, and paused. "We actually had a pretty good start, but just with a little bit of crosswind, we had went into the buoys, caught a buoy, and lost an oar. Then it took about five strokes for Megan to get her oar turned to the right side."
"We literally stopped, and they took a couple lengths," O'Leary said.
"She kept trying to take a stroke with an upside down oar, and I turned around and I'm just saying 'Other way! Other way! Other way!'" Tomek said. "Finally she turns her oar and we get going again."
"It flipped in such a way that it felt comfortable, but I took three strokes and we weren't going anywhere," O'Leary said. "So no, at the time I didn't. Then the neurosystems kicked into the hand and I flipped it the other way. It's funny, there was that moment of panic, but we are so confident in our speed and knowing that we had the ability to come back, that kicked in, and we just went to work."
"We were told we posted the fastest time in the reps, which blows my mind," O'Leary said. "I think in that regard, there's that kind of, yeah we had to go."
Stopping mid-race like that is no pleasant experience, as Tomek relates: "Adrenaline takes over and you catch your breath, but that lactic acid in your legs… all of a sudden you feel it and it was like, oh man this really hurts. And it takes another 500 meters to get flushing it again, because you stop and you kind of seize up."
The crew also had to pull into the stake boats backwards to get their GPS fixed; "there were a lot of funny things that happened with that race," O'Leary said. In the bigger picture, O'Leary thought the piece went well, despite the mishap.
"Otherwise It was much better than our heat I'd say, so we're just trying to get a little better with each race," she said. "So everything relative, I would say it went well. And we still have better rowing.
The duo had seen Campbell flip while they were out on the water.
"I think it was the same buoy," O'Leary said.
"It says USA on it with a big line through it I think," Tomek said.
The Tuesday Races That Were Raced on Wednesday
Slightly but not completely less wack, the afternoon racing docket started off with the heats that were rescheduled from last night's Wind Storm That Did Not Happen. For US crews, these included the reps of the men's quad, and the heats of the women's eight.
The women's eight had a really nice run down the course, leading the whole way in a time of 6:20.96 – which it turned out was the exact same time of the Canadian women's eight in the next heat, who also lead the entire way. The split times were pretty different – the US crew went (more or less) 1:33, 1:35, 1:36, and 1:36; while the Canadians went (more or less) 1:30, 1:35, 1:38, 1:36 – but the end result was the same. The trend also looks a whole lot like the final of the Aiguebelette World Cup – so brace yourself for a pretty epic North American joust come the Sunday final.
"It was good to get our first race under our belt, finally, a day late," said two-seat Meghan Musnicki. "Better late than never, right? It was a good race. We executed our race plan and did what we wanted to do."
In the men's quad, the US quad spotted Italy a bit of water in the early going, then raced themselves into first place going into the final 500, but were reeled in by the French quad in the final 250 as the Italians faltered badly, finishing fifth. Bowman Peter Graves allowed that the Italians start may have forced the US to react in a way that might have hurt them nearing the finish.
"Italy jumped out to a pretty commanding lead in the beginning, and we were expecting that it was going to be us," he said. "So we hunted them down the best we could, and I think we paid the price at the end for it. I'm just glad we were able to finish in a qualifying position. It was good to have a competitive race, thought, and hopefully we blew out the pipes for tomorrow."
Yesterday all the men's quads had already launched before the racing was cancelled, and were sent home in a flotilla after the call was made. Graves said it was unsettling, but that the crew had adjusted by the time racing came around today.
"We all got amped up for yesterday's race, and to have to kind of calm down and forget about it, it was kind of a challenge," he said. "It was a lot of sitting around. But we were ready for today."
Light Men's Double
Almost miraculously, the light men's double raced their quarterfinal on the day they were supposed to race, did not flip, and also came out on the happy end of a photo finish for a spot in the A/B semis. The crew had a burner of a race that came down to 0.13 over China at the end, more or less about six inches. The crew was ready for it, though.
"After the heat we kind of went into it knowing that it was going to have to be all the way to the well if it needed to be," bow seat Josh Konieczny said. "So we took that and just kind of played our game for the first part of the race. Denmark got away, which we didn't really expect, but then coming into the last part China kept moving and we were thinking to ourselves 'Now it's time to go to 100%,' and the last 25 it was just everything we could do to stay ahead."
"I didn't know where we had finished until we talked afterwards, so that made the pain go away a little faster," stroke Austin Meyer said. "But overall we're through and tomorrow is a new day. That race shows that on any given day a crew can have a great race and another crew can have a not great rac,e and that's the difference between A Final or the B Final, AB Semi or CD Semi. We'll focus on recovering now, that's all we're thinking about."
The crew has to turn around and race the semi tomorrow, so I asked how they think about and approach an intensely quick turnaround like that.
"I think about efficiency in all aspects, really." Meyer said. "What can we do technically to make it not hurt as much, how fast can we recover so we can put a full piece together. It's all the little things that add up, so we go back to always the fundamentals. And then the little things are what we're going to be talking about and working out."
"It's always helped us to get back into the routine," Konieczny said. "As Austin said the little things are important, so that everything else you can knock it down as it comes, and you're not worried about what comes next."
Light Men's Four
The light men's four is always an interesting race to watch, as they tend to be both races of massive intensity, incredibly closely matched crews, and potentially wars of attrition as the lightweights just try to beat each other down mercilessly. As such, watching the GPS boat speeds can be a pretty interesting way to follow the race, as almost all of the crews will be going the "fastest" at some point in the race. At least a couple times the speeds were flashed on the screen, the US crew was cruising; they had some really nice patches in the rep.
"We were working on the start throughout the summer, and I think we executed that pretty well here," US stroke Robin Prendes said after the race. "It could have maybe taxed us a little bit, so we will be concentrating on having that strong base that we're used to, and maybe adjusting to this headwind that's a little stiffer than it looks."
As for dealing with the packs that characterize racing in the lightweight four, Prendes shared his approach.
"I think the most important thing is to stay internal, know what you have and just try to race as best as you can within your own limits," he said. "Whatever happens then hopefully your top speed is what you need."
Women's Single
Gevvie Stone knew that Kim Crow would be fast, so she focused a bit on the British sculler Victoria Thornley, and one hell of a duel developed. Thornley led Stone to the 500, then Stone led Thornley to the 1000, then Thornley led Stone to the 1500, then Stone led Thornley at the finish. Both advance, but it was pretty exciting to watch.
"She was ahead of me at the start, and then I kind of worked my way into her and passed her," Stone said. "Then she passed me a little bit and I said 'I'm not going to let that happen,' and raced it through. Then my guess is that she didn't sprint, she kind of let me take second. . I expected to have to fight. I hoped the three of us would kind of make our mark as the three that progress to semis and I expected to fight for the second spot."
After her heat the other day, Stone said she was hoping the winds would come around to a headwind; she got those conditions today.
"Those are conditions I love," she said. "The light headwind… it felt locked on and felt solid."
Men's Eight
The men's eight could be a wide open affair this weekend, save perhaps if the Germans remain on form, in which case they are likely the favorites. Otherwise, if today's rep times are any indication, medals could go to almost anyone in the race; the four qualifying times today were within three seconds across the two reps.
The US went out to improve on the early stages of their race plan, and it showed, as they led the race until almost the final strokes, when the French crew sprinted through to win; the US crew took the second qualifying spot for the A final.
"You want to win the race, but we really went hard at the beginning," seven-seat Nareg Guregian said. "We worked on the first half of the race in one day, so now we have four days to get ready for the final."
More US racing:
Notes from the course:
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