Both USA Lightweight scullers, Nick Trojan and Kate Bertko, qualified for their A-Finals in today's semis, but they did it in radically different ways; today was about rowing from the front or rowing from behind. Both Trojan and Bertko train under coach Carlos Dinares ; I spoke to both in separate conversations about their opposing experiences.
Nick Trojan's semi in the light men's single had Trojan staging a charge, not defending one. Coming through the last 500 in fourth a solid 1.5 seconds out of third, and thanks to rowing in lane five not always visible on the TV screens, Trojan fired off a last 500 that was the second fastest 500 of any of the six scullers anywhere in the race, putting him into the A final.
Trojan is somewhat known for his ability to sprint – US supporters watching in front of the big boatyard jumbo screen were saying "he hasn't gone yet, here it comes!" – and while he would prefer not to have to rely on a huge sprint, he doesn't mind racing from behind a bit – which he did today in spades.
"Being in a comfortable position in a race is always the best feeling, but sometimes I feel that it’s kind of relaxing for me to keep the pressure on the guys in front of me; to make sure they feel that they’re in the lead but they’re not comfortable," Trojan said.
"When the pain starts hitting and they see someone else coming back on them, they have a hard time, sometimes especially the top guys," he continued. "In this race, Miani (the Italian sculler) really had to fight for his lead, and then when it came down to the final few seconds he collapsed all around. It was a good race, everything there was fighting, I think all of us were within a second. It’s tough to be on the short end of the stick but luckily it went my way today."
As for the price you pay for a sprint like that, Trojan does not worry too much about it.
"We train for that; it’s always been my coach Carlos’s (Dinares) motto to just train for recovery," he said. "If you’re an athlete you want it as bad as any athlete does, and you’re going to do what you have to do during a race. What happens outside of that race is more important in that situation."
US LW1x Kate Bertko experienced almost the polar opposite race, rowing out to the lead and then largely protecting her lead all the way down the course from the British sculler, who made several bids to make up water on Bertko in the second thousand. I talked to Bertko not so much about this specific race, but about the psychology of racing in the lead, especially in the single where you have to make all the decisions yourself.
"Racing from the front, you would think it always should be this magical moment, where you’re controlling the race, you have this really nice visual, and it certainly can become calm," she said. "You can have total visual control over the field. But sometimes it be a little panic induced, as you can literally watch everyone’s moves. For me personally, I like to focus on the internal race plan, and it (seeing all the other scullers) can almost be a distraction in a way.
"Today, GB was pretty quick, so I definitely had a distraction there," she continued. "It was important to manage the emotions, the highs and the lows of watching someone attack you, and managing what I wanted to do with those attacks was certainly a challenge.
"Of course it’s not the end of the world to be in front, but it’s never as relaxing as you think it could be, unless you have gobs of open water. And then if you get something like that (a very big lead), you just enjoy it, because it’s so rare. "
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