Semifinals racing is notoriously, uh, 'exciting," but there is a difference between an exciting sporting contest and being almost completely wrung out at the end of the day. Of the total of 16 A/B semis raced this afternoon, the total margin from the critical third place to fourth place was 25.4 seconds, an average of 1.58 seconds per race.
Take away the four races that were not decided by less than three seconds, and the sum goes down to 10.9 seconds, an average margin of 0.9 seconds over 12 races. Holy smokes; the adage that "the semifinal is the final" plays out to be true in regatta after regatta, so always bring your A Game on semis day.
Women's Pair
The day started with the A/B semis of the women's pair, which was oddly raced before all of the lower semis and finals, some four and a half hours before the bulk of A/B semis. The US women said they enjoyed the quiet on the Bosbaan, which was definitely more tranquil than it is midday with all the warmup and warmdown traffic, afternoon winds, and general bustle.
The US crew led the entire race, putting in an impressive row that just clicked along the full 2k. I mentioned that the row even looked fun; apparently I wasn't the only person who thought so.
"Everybody keeps using that word today!" bow seat Megan Kalmoe said. "It was fun," stroke seat Kerry Simmonds said. "The water was beautiful, there weren't a lot of crews out there, it stayed sunny. We appreciated not being tossed around."
"That’s the way you want your World Championships racing to be," Kalmoe added. "Beautiful summer weather, quiet good conditions, everybody wants those things. It was great to be out there this morning."
The crew definitely went out with the "semi is the final" mentality; Kalmoe said so explicitly.
"We raced it like it was our final," she said. "The number one goal was to qualify so that we had a shot to race again on Saturday for medals. This season our natural race profile has been to kind of speed up through the race and have a pretty strong second thousand, so we wanted to see if we could add another piece to that and make the first thousand a little bit stronger, less casual, more business. We’ve been working on that and it’s been fun because those high strokes at the beginning of the race have been fun, a lot of fun. There’s that word right there, fun."
"I think today was just about execution of the plan," Simmonds added. "So hopefully now we kind of have an idea of what we want to do for our final and we can do it again but a little bit better."
Light Women's Single
US sculler Kate Bertko has had an extraordinary rugged summer, shuttling between the double, then the single, then missing some time in the boat, then the single again, but anyone watching today's semifinal wouldn't have a clue as to those travails. After leading from start to finish, even pushing out a couple times when the field tried to come back on her, Bertko seemed equally as pleasantly naïve about it all after a long warmdown post-race.
"I really had no idea what was going to happen," she said. "It’s been like a bit of a mystery regatta for me. It’s been kind of a rough go to get here, but I just love racing so I was pretty pumped to be racing. We talked about just sort of opening it up a little bit from the heat and seeing what I’m capable of at this point in development. My goal is to do well tomorrow so hopefully I put myself in a good position to do that. Bring it on tomorrow, let’s go a little harder."
Men's Pair
Compared to a buggy rep the other day, the US pair of Glenn Ochal and Charlie Cole looked like new men out there today, putting together a pro's semi in a race with the undefeated-since-2009 Kiwi pair, and a Brit pair that has been matching and even beating the Kiwi's times all week. The crew was aware of the progress they have made as the days have passed.
"We did what we wanted to, we have confidence, and we’ve been using the week to improve," Cole said. "I think we’ve done some good stuff this year. We have confidence in our ability to work it together when we have to, and we punched our ticket (to the A final). It’s going to be a tough race on Saturday but we still think we have one more race in us and we’re going to do our best."
The boat had the look of a crew well within themselves, but don't be fooled by their composure.
"It was definitely better and that’s the goal to make it look that way," Ochal said. "We’re going for it in there, and we have 2000 meters left in us, so we’re going to go for it again for 2000."
"Like a lot of these guys out here we’ve done some really good work this year," Cole added. "It’s a question of putting it together on race day. We know if we put our best round together that we’re going to be alright and it’s just a question of doing that."
The presence of the Kiwis definitely made for a fast semi, and the US's time in third a couple lengths behind NZ and five seconds behind GB was the same as the Germans' winning time in the other heat.
Light Men's Double
The US light men were on the right side of a photo finish yesterday in the quarters, and the wrong side of one today. As their coach Linda Muri noted, probably better today than yesterday, as they got to run with the top teams in the AB semis, and now go to the B final instead of a C final. The race was a semi for the ages, with the jumbotron camerapeople reluctant to take the camera off the bows of the boats, as they were stacked up the screen for almost the entire race. Anyway, a pretty good go out there for a new US light double.
Light Women's Double
The light women's doubles were predictably a similar affair, and the US was in the hunt for a long time before Obee and Jennerich of Canada started winding up from way back in fifth. It looked like some of the field saw it starting to happen, and some did not, and the US out in lane 5 seemed caught off guard. They went from contending position to a bit distant fifth almost in a blink, which had to be rough to experience.
The Canadian double was stroked by Patricia Obee, who had rowed with US bow seat Devery Karz at Oregon State several years ago before transferring to UW; Obee's sprint wins best in show today, no question. And it's not the first time this double did this; they came from fifth into second at Lucerne earlier this year in the final.
Men's Four
The GB four has set the standard in this event for a long time; even when they aren't winning it, which isn't often, they are often the target of everyone in the races. Today was no exception, and the US crew set their sights on running with the GB, to pretty good success for a good 7/8 of the race. The GB pulled away a bit at the end, but the US crew is definitely in the game.
And a good game it will be; thought the GB crew separated themselves a bit with a 5:52, after that there were four crews across the two heats from 5:54.39 to 5:56.2. The race for the medals is going to be stellar.
US two-seat Mike Gennaro cited the GB crew as the focus of their semi today, noting that anyone in the race has to reckon with them.
"I think you have to appreciate GB’s speed," he said. "They’ve dictated this event all year. You just kind of have to appreciate and respect what they do, understand that that’s a very high standard, and kind of get excited about it. If they’re as fast as everybody thinks they are, then that’s what we’re here for. You’re trying to beat the best and so we just tried to run with them for the middle thousand just to kind of see if it’s possible, see what we’ve got. Now we’re just going to have to put together a full race on Saturday."
The US crew had a pretty 'normal' race doing so, if that makes sense; Gennaro agreed.
"Yeah, there were no out of body experiences, we weren’t saying our Hail Mary’s, we were just going long and strong and we were sticking with them, then they pushed out," he said. "But the goal today was to get top 3 and we got top 3. We tested our speed against the top boat and now we’ll recover for Saturday."
I asked about Henrik Rummel's finger-rubbing gesture going past the grandstands. "Hendrik thinks he’s Johnny Manzeil all of a sudden," Mike said. "He’s a smart ass. Not really any significance at all. It was fun."
Women's Quad
China had posted the fastest time in the heats in this event, but the US crew pounced early to take the lead. China responded fairly early in the race, though, taking the lead by the 1000, and then really putting on one concentrated burst in the third 500. It was an impressive move, though it didn't really blow the race or event open; in fact, in the end all of the A finalists were within about a length of each other. It is worth noting that one of the crews that did not make the A final included Ekaterina Karsten in the bow seat – so these are pretty serious boats. The prospect of a quad race just seats apart all the way down the course is something not to miss.
The US placed second in the heat, a couple seconds behind China, assisted by a nice push at the end of the race.
"We were definitely trying to be internal for the race, because every time we go out on the water we just get better and better," bow seat Grace Latz said. "So we were very internal definitely for the first half of the race. I was a little surprised at the move that they (China) had around the thousand/1250, but still even then was just trying to be sharper through the piece even though we were getting really tired. I think while we’re all a little sour we might not have the exact placement we want, we got the goal of going to the A final, so that’s like the first goal, so we’re happy with that."
Of the crew's late push, Latz credited training at home for the ability to pile it on a bit. "I think definitely practicing with the other training center boats and just pushing each other in that last bit throughout the whole year no matter what boat we’re in, I think we all tap into that."
Men's Quad
I mentioned above the potential thrill of a quad race that was six across all the way down the course – well it already happened today, in the men's quad. The US quad actually pushed the pace of the pack today, but it looked like the task piled up on them coming into the final 200 meters, and they fell back into fifth as the rest of the field surged. They will row in the B final.
More US Racing
Probably of most interest was Andrew Campbell's row in the CD finals; he had a pretty easy go of it, and should be able to show what he has for the C final. Yohann Rigogne also won his E Final this morning, tho I already did a full interview with him this morning here.
Notes from the course
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