Racing in the Women's Single and Men's Double at this USRowing's "Senior Trials 2" wrapped up at Mercer Lake Tuesday, selecting the athletes for the final two events open to Trials for the 2022 World Rowing Championships: Kara Kohler in the W1x, and the duo of Tom Phifer and Sorin Koszyk in the M2x.
Kohler: Back to the 1x
For Kohler, the win in the single was widely expected: Kohler won the Singles Trials back in March and has been the US sculler since 2018, to include her 9th place finish at the Tokyo Games. After initially earning, and accepting, a spot in the Women's Double, Kohler realized that she wanted to stay in the single after all.
That decision--which Kohler called "difficult"--was the reason the W1x went to this late, and final, Trial race: while going through the process of qualifying the double with W2x partner Sophia Vitas, Kohler was still interested in competing in the single.
The timing of committing to one or the other event, as dictated by the Selection Procedures in place this year, meant Kohler had to decide before she had her Henley campaign in the single fully underway. In fact, she had to declare for the double on her first day of racing for the Princess Grace Challenge Cup which she would go on to win in the final over the GB sculler, and fellow Olympian, Imogen Grant.
Kohler, who told row2k back at NSR2 in May that she still had "a lot of fire to race the single" ultimately decided that she could not pass up the opportunity to stay in the boat where she can draw on her years of experience when it comes time to race at Worlds.
"In the back of my mind, it was really hard to let go of single," said Kohler after winning on Tuesday.
"I didn't express that very well to anyone and so, eventually, after Henley, it was eating at me strong enough that I made the very difficult decision to withdraw myself from the double. It wasn't a very pleasant experience because the timing was off: I should have made the decision sooner for the sake of Sophia. We have a lot of fun rowing together, and we were doing well, but it was eating me strong enough that I knew it wouldn't be the right decision to stay in that boat for me or Sofia, because I really wanted to continue racing the single."
While Kohler admitted that it was not the "right time" to decide, she was able to make her plans known early enough for Vitas to go to the second round of the selection camp--a camp which now includes the W2x. Those selections will be announced in the coming week.
"I was really hoping that I would be given the time to race [the single] at Henley and then be able to make a decision, since I hadn't raced internationally at all yet this season and had kind of been trading in the single for the double for a month or two."
"I wanted to get a feel for the single again, and see if I wanted to go down that route, but I wasn't given the time, and felt like the decision was rushed for me. Then I did well at Henley and thought, wow, I feel that fire again, I want to go back to this boat class."
Kohler, who won a 1x bronze in 2019 to go along with the bronze she won in the 2012 Olympics with the US Quad, heads back into the single now with the kind of experience that can be a difference-maker.
"I feel like experience in the single is really valuable," she said, looking ahead to this September's Worlds. "I feel like I'm at a point now where I've raced the single in 2018, 2019 and 2021, so I have three seasons in the single under my belt, and I think having those experiences in my mind and knowing how to navigate a regatta in the single, and even the 2k race itself: things can change quickly in a single versus in an eight and so just like having that knowledge, it's very powerful."
Men's Double: Pfifer & Koszyk
If Kohler's story at Trials was a return to the single--and getting to choose between two ways to make the team--Tom Phifer's story was one of using the single as a last chance to make the team, a chance that he and new partner Sorin Koszyk made the most of in the doubles final with their win.
Phifer, who had been a B finalist in both the single at NSR 1 and the double at NSR 2, was very much on the outside looking in at the team selection this year, until he won the Men's Single at Summer Nationals and earned the final invite to the second Selection Camp. There, he met up with Koszyk, who had earned an invite to both the first and second camps by taking 4th in the single at NSR 1 and making the A Final of the Double at NSR 2. Thee two found themselves to be a double combination that clicked.
"It feels surreal, how it turned out," said Phifer afterwards. "If you'd asked me four months ago if I was going to make the team, I'd probably say, 'Absolutely not.'"
"I had a pretty good start to the season, but not amazing. And I think the path to the team was pretty complicated this year. My last shot was to perform in the single at Nationals. I worked really, really hard in May and June at Penn AC with my coach, Bill Manning, towards that goal, and it really paid off well with my win at Nationals.
"[Sorin and I] got in the double during selection camp, and it immediately went really well. We saw that as the most realistic path forward, so we just made it happen.
"It was a long road and very complex road this year with a lot of ups and downs, but overall, really positive: a really positive trajectory."
Even though their combo is a new one, both scullers credited the training and experience they had from racing apart with their win in the Tuesday's trial.
"We knew that it's a trials event, so there's going to be a lot of pressure," said Koszyk, who can look back on his close finishes this year and the experience of racing the Final Olympic Qualifier last year in the Men's Quad.
"You just back yourself, trust your boatmate, and just carry it through the whole piece," said Koszyk.
Phifer admitted the conditions played a role: "The conditions were a little tough out there," he said of the crosswind. "Our race plan was just to get off the line as best we could, with as little energy as possible, and just keep cool heads for the middle part of the race."
"We were next to other boats through the 1000," said Koszyk; "It was a tight race until the 1250, so we just had to trust each other, trust the speed that we've been putting down in practice."
"From our training, we are pretty confident in our fitness and our overall speed," added Phifer, "and we just tried to take control as early as possible without going too hard."
This will be the first Worlds Team for both Phifer and Koszyk, who were the only selection camp-based crew in the Doubles Trial.
For Koszyk, the new team selection format has worked well, where he has been able to train year-round back at the California Rowing Club and then come together for selection here at Mercer as Worlds approaches.
"I love being able to train at the Club with Skip and Mike all year," he said. "That's a lot of fun and just a little bit more of a stress-free environment, because you are just at the club, rowing, so it's just fun."
Koszyk also acknowledged that this year's selection is all part of a longer process as they look ahead to Worlds with Trials behind them.
"It's not pass/fail anymore: we just need to keep training, keep getting a little bit better, and just put down like the best pieces that we can. Obviously, we're not the best in the world right now, for sure, so it's like: just do as well as you can and just keep putting down fast times and work on getting better over the next two, three years."
Next Steps to Racice
Only the naming of the big camp boats remains, and those are scheduled to be announced within seven days of the conclusion of this last Trails event--so by Tuesday if our math is right.
That announcement will include the eights, fours and quads, as well as the Women's Double.
From there, the focus will be on Worlds in Racice, where racing is slated to start on 18 September.
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08/12/2022 10:57:44 AM